Bfcg^g^rJllftWc  ^fl» 

|^  DANIEL  ^ 
f^WEBSTER^ 

- 

I  JCMli^H  MSJM5TEK 

GEIP1P  or 


I!rs 


L.    Pax son 


DANIEL    WEBSTER 


\z^)  ^^^S^z^^-^^zi- 


DANIEL   WEBSTER 


BY 

JOHN    BACH    McMASTER 

UNIVERSITY    OF    PENNSYLVANIA 


Wlustratefc 


NEW  YORK 
THE    CENTURY    CO. 

1902 


Copyright,  1900,  1901,  1902,  by 
The  Century  Co. 

Published  October,  1902 


GIFT 

P 


THE  DEVINNC  PRESS. 


£5 


TO 


ROBERT    BACH    McMASTER 


M6145: 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  SCHOOL  DAYS 3 

II   STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY  AND  LAW      ....  24 

III  ENTRANCE  INTO  POLITICS 54 

IV  A  CONGRESSMAN  FROM  NEW  HAMPSHIRE         ...  68 
V  A  CONGRESSMAN  FROM  MASSACHUSETTS    .      ,      .      .  96 

VI   A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDERALIST 122 

VII   THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE 146 

VIII  EXPOUNDER  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION 182 

IX   THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  CALHOUN 201 

X   A  WHIG  LEADER 226 

XI   THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  SLAVERY 241 

XII   SECRETARY  OF  STATE 255 

XIII  LONGING  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY 284 

XIV  THE  SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         303 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


DANIEL  WEBSTER Frontispiece 

From  a  daguerreotype. 

Page 
ROOM  IN  WHICH  DANIEL  WEBSTER  WAS  BORN,  FRANK- 
LIN, NEW  HAMPSHIRE.    PRESENT  CONDITION 7 

Drawn  by  B.  West  Clinedinst. 

ELMS    FARM,   FRANKLIN,   NEW    HAMPSHIRE,   WEBSTER'S 

HOME   AS  A  CHILD 7 

Drawn  by  B.  West  Clinedinst. 

REV.  JOSEPH  STEVENS  BUCKMINSTER 13 

From  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum. 

THE    SECOND    ACADEMY    BUILDING    (PHILLIPS    EXETER 
ACADEMY)  AS  IT  STOOD  WHEN  ATTENDED  BY  DANIEL 

WEBSTER  IN  1796 19 

Drawn  by  Harry  Fenn. 

DANIEL     WEBSTER'S     HOUSE     IN     PORTSMOUTH,     NEW 
HAMPSHIRE 19 

Drawn  by  B.  West  Clinedinst. 

"WEBSTER'S    HOUSE,"    DARTMOUTH    COLLEGE,    WHERE 

DANIEL  WEBSTER   ROOMED  WHEN  A  STUDENT 27 

Drawn  by  B.  West  Clinedinst. 

CHRISTOPHER  GORE 39 

From  the  painting  by  J.  Trumbull  in  the  Harvard  Memorial  Hall, 
Cambridge. 

WEBSTER'S  MOTHER 45 

From  silhouette  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Abbott  Lawrence. 

GRACE  FLETCHER  (MRS.  DANIEL  WEBSTER) 49 

From  the  painting  by  C.  Harding  in  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Abbott 
Lawrence. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER  AS  A  YOUNG  MAN 59 

From  the  original  miniature  presented  to  Miss  Grace  Fletcher  (after- 
ward Mrs.  Webster)  by  Mr.  Webster.  Lent  by  Mrs.  Ella  Lincoln 
Pierce. 

ix 


x  LIST   OF   ILLUSTBATIONS 

Page 

THE   CAPITOL,   1814 77 

From  a  drawing  in  the  Congressional  Library. 

WEBSTER'S  HOUSE  IN  SOMERSET  STREET,  BOSTON 91 

WEBSTER'S  CHAIR  AND  STICK 91 

From  a  photograph  of  the  original  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Walton 
Hall. 

IMPRESSION    FROM    WEBSTER'S    SEAL-RING,   OWNED    BY 
MRS.  C.  H.  JOY 91 

JAMES  MADISON 105 

From  the  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart. 

JOHN  MARSHALL 105 

From  the  portrait  by  Henry  Inman. 

JAMES  MONROE 105 

From  the  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart. 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 127 

From  the  portrait  by  Stuart  and  Sully,  in  Memorial  Hall,  Harvard 
University. 

ANDREW  JACKSON 127 

JEREMIAH  MASON 153 

From  the  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart. 

EDWARD  EVERETT 153 

From  a  daguerreotype. 

JOSEPH  STORY 153 

From  the  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart. 

ROBERT  Y.  HAYNE 175 

Drawn  by  George  T.  Tobin,  from  a  print  in  possession  of  William  H. 
Hayne. 

THOMAS  N.  BENTON 207 

From  a  photograph  in  the  collection  of  Robert  Coster. 

JOHN  C.  CALHOUN 207 

From  a  lithograph  after  a  daguerreotype. 

HENRY  CLAY 207 

From  the  portrait  by  Marchant  in  the  diplomatic  reception  rooms, 
State  Department,  Washington. 

WEBSTER'S  HOUSE  IN  SUMMER  STREET,  BOSTON 219 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

Page 
CAROLINE  LEROY,  MR.  WEBSTER'S  SECOND  WIFE 233 

From  a  crayon  portrait  owned  by  Mrs.  Abbott  Lawrence. 

JOSEPH    STORY,  ASSOCIATE   JUSTICE   OF  THE  SUPREME 
COURT 257 

ALEXANDER  BARING,  LORD  ASHBURTON 277 

From  a  portrait  by  G.  P.  A.  Healy  painted  in  1843,  in  commemoration 
of  the  Webster- Ashburton  treaty.  In  the  diplomatic  reception  rooms 
of  the  State  Department,  Washington. 

EXTERIOR  AND   INTERIOR  OF   WEBSTER'S    LAW  OFFICE 

AT  MARSHFIELD,  MASS 285 

Drawn  by  B.  West  Clinedinst. 

RUFUS  CHOATE 295 

From  a  photograph  by  Josiah  J.  Hawes,  taken  between  1855  and  1860. 
The  negative  was  not  retouched. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER 319 

From  the  painting  by  G.  P.  A.  Healy.  This  portrait  was  painted  in 
1848,  as  a  companion  portrait  to  that  of  Lord  Ashburton,  and  hangs 
in  the  diplomatic  reception  rooms  of  the  State  Department. 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 


CHAPTER  I 

SCHOOL   DAYS 

ONE  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  when  New 
Hampshire  was  a  royal  province,  when  the 
frontier  of  civilization  had  not  been  pushed  farther 
up  the  Merrimac  than  Concord,  when  the  French 
still  held  the  Mississippi  valley,  the  Great  Lakes, 
and  the  river  St.  Lawrence,  and  were  about  to 
build  their  forts  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Alle- 
ghany, when  events  were  hurrying  on  the  seven 
years'  struggle  that  was  to  settle  once  and  for  all 
who  should  rule  America,  a  band  of  hardy  pio- 
neers took  up  land  under  patent,  and,  in  the  heart 
of  the  forest,  some  eighteen  miles  north  of  Con- 
cord, laid  the  foundation  of  Major  Stevens'  town. 
The  venture  was  scarcely  started  when  the  storm 
of  war  burst  upon  the  country,  and  not  until  the 
victory  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham  gave  peace  and 
quiet  to  the  frontier  did  Stevenstown,  soon  re- 
named Salisbury,  begin  to  thrive.  Another  band 
of  backwoodsmen  then  made  it  their  home,  and 
among  these  was  a  young  Indian-fighter  of  four- 

3 


4  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

and-twenty,  Ebenezer  Webster.  He  came  of  a  race 
of  commonwealth-builders  who,  for  a  century  past, 
had  lived  and  fought  on  the  soil  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  was  himself  a  splendid  type  of  sturdy 
and  vigorous  manhood.  Born  at  Kingston,  his 
youth  was  passed  in  the  exciting  times  of  King 
George's  War,  when  the  French  and  Indians  were 
harrying  the  frontier,  and  when  all  New  England 
rang  with  joy  over  the  capture  of  the  fortress  of 
Louisburg.  He  was  fifteen  when  the  surrender  of 
Fort  Necessity  opened  the  Seven  Years'  War  in 
serious  earnest,  and  before  it  ended  he  saw  service 
that  was  no  child's  play  in  a  famous  corps  known 
as  Rogers'  Rangers. 

The  war  over,  Ebenezer  Webster  came  back  to 
the  settlements,  selected  Stevenstown  as  his  future 
home,  took  up  land,  and  built  a  log  cabin,  to  which, 
a  year  later,  he  brought  a  wife.  The  town  was 
then  on  the  very  edge  of  the  frontier,  and  as  his 
cabin  was  farther  north  than  any  other,  not  a  habi- 
tation save  those  of  the  red  man  lay  between  him 
and  Canada.  In  this  wilderness  home  five  children 
were  born  before  the  mother  died,  after  ten  years 
of  wedded  life,  and  the  father  brought  to  it  as  his 
second  wife  Abigail  Eastman. 

Wringing  a  livelihood  from  such  a  soil  in  such 
a  climate  was  hard  enough  at  any  time,  but  the  task 
was  now  made  more  difficult  still  by  the  opening 
of  the  long  struggle  between  the  colonies  and  the 
mother-country,  and  the  constant  demand  on  his 


SCHOOL  DAYS  5 

time  for  services,  both  civil  and  military.  Now 
we  see  him,  after  the  fights  at  Concord  and  Lex- 
ington, hurrying  at  the  head  of  his  company  to 
join  the  forces  around  Boston;  now  home  again  to 
serve  as  delegate  to  the  convention  which  framed 
the  first  constitution  of  New  Hampshire.  Now  we 
see  him,  a  true  minuteman,  resigning  his  captaincy 
and  hastening  to  serve  under  Washington,  in  an 
hour  of  dire  need  at  White  Plains ;  then  home  again 
to  become  a  member  of  a  committee  to  prevent 
forestalling  and  to  regulate  the  prices  of  commod- 
ities. Now  we  behold  him  at  the  head  of  seventy 
men  pushing  through  the  wilderness  for  the  relief 
of  Ticonderoga;  now  returning  when  he  hears  of 
the  evacuation  of  the  fort,  and  reaching  home  just 
in  time  to  lead  back  another  band  that  fought  gal- 
lantly at  Bennington.  Once  again  at  home  we 
find  him  at  the  head  of  more  committees  to  regu- 
late prices,  to  enlist  the  town's  quota  for  the  Con- 
tinental army,  and  finally  in  command  of  four  com- 
panies raised  to  aid  in  the  defense  of  West  Point. 
Public  services  of  such  various  sorts  bespeak  a 
man  with  a  will  not  easily  bent,  with  a  capacity  to 
do  equal  to  any  emergency,  with  a  patriotism  ris- 
ing above  all  considerations  of  self;  a  man  coura- 
geous, resourceful,  self-reliant,  and  commanding 
the  entire  confidence  and  respect  of  his  fellows. 

By  the  time  Cornwallis  surrendered  and  the 
fighting  ended,  three  more  children  had  been  added 
to  the  little  flock.    The  log  cabin  had  now  become 


6  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

too  small,  and  a  farm-house  was  built  near  by.  It 
was  the  typical  New  England  farm-house  of  the 
day— one  story  high,  clapboarded,  with  the  chim- 
ney in  the  center,  the  door  in  the  middle  of  the 
south  side,  four  rooms  on  the  ground  floor,  and  a 
lean-to  in  the  rear  for  a  kitchen ;  and  in  this  house, 
on  January  18,  1782,  another  son  was  born,  and 
named  Daniel. 

When  the  child  was  a  year  and  more  old  the 
parents  moved  to  the  banks  of  the  Merrimac,  to 
Elms  Farm,  a  place  of  some  local  interest,  for  on 
it,  within  a  cabin  whose  site  was  plainly  visible  in 
Webster's  day,  had  been  perpetrated  one  of  the 
many  Indian  massacres  that  make  up  so  much  of 
frontier  history,  and  near  this  had  stood  one  of 
the  last  of  the  forts  built  to  protect  the  inhabitants 
of  Salisbury  and  the  neighboring  towns  against  the 
savages. 

As  the  boy  grew  in  years  and  stature  his  life 
was  powerfully  affected  by  the  facts  that  he  was 
the  youngest  son  and  ninth  child  in  a  family  of 
ten;  that  his  health  was  far  from  good;  that  he 
showed  tastes  and  mental  traits  that  stood  out  in 
marked  contrast  with  those  of  his  brothers  and  sis- 
ters ;  and  that  he  was,  from  infancy,  the  pet  of  the 
family.  Such  daily  work  as  a  farmer's  lad  was 
then  made  to  do  was  not  for  him.  Yet  he  was  ex- 
pected to  do  something,  and  might  have  been  seen 
barefooted,  in  frock  and  trousers,  astride  of  the 
horse  that  dragged  the  plow  between  the  rows  of 


1.       ROOM    IN    WHICH   DANIEL    WEBSTER   WAS    BORN,  FRANKLIN,  NEW 
HAMPSHIRE.      PRESENT    CONDITION. 
ELMS    FARM,  FRANKLIN,  NEW   HAMPSHIRE,  WEBSTER'S    HOME    AS   A    CHILD. 


SCHOOL  DAYS  9 

corn,  or  raking  hay,  or  binding  the  wheat  the  reap- 
ers cut,  or  following  the  cows  to  pasture  in  the 
morning  and  home  again  at  night,  or  tending  logs 
in  his  father's  sawmill.  When  such  work  was  to 
be  done  it  was  his  custom  to  take  a  book  along,  set 
the  log,  hoist  the  gates,  and  while  the  saw  passed 
slowly  through  the  tree-trunk,  an  operation  which, 
in  those  days,  consumed  some  twenty  minutes,  he 
would  settle  himself  comfortably  and  read. 

He  was  taught  to  read,  he  tells  us,  by  his  mother 
and  sister  at  so  early  an  age  that  he  never  knew 
the  time  when  he  could  not  peruse  the  Bible  with 
ease.  With  this  humble  beginning,  his  further 
education  was  intrusted  to  the  village  schoolmas- 
ter. The  town  of  Salisbury  was  then  so  divided 
for  school  purposes  that  the  district  in  which  Web- 
ster lived  stretched  away  from  the  Merrimac  River 
to  the  hills  several  miles  off,  and  had  within  it 
three  rude  log  school-houses.  One  stood  near  the 
river-bank,  another  was  on  the  old  North  Road, 
and  the  third  in  the  west  end  of  the  township.  So 
little  was  there  attractive  in  this  backwoods  com- 
munity that  the  wandering  schoolmaster  seems 
never  to  have  visited  it,  and  his  place  was  filled 
by  some  humble  resident  who  added  to  the  profits 
of  his  farm  or  his  store  by  keeping  the  district 
schools,  teaching  spelling,  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic  for  a  few  weeks  each  year,  and  receiv- 
ing in  return  the  pittance  of  a  few  dollars.  It  was 
in  the  shop  kept  by  one  of  these  teachers  that  Dan- 


10  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

iel,  while  still  a  mere  child,  first  beheld  a  copy  of 
the  Federal  Constitution,  printed  with  gorgeous 
adornment  on  a  cotton  pocket-handkerchief.  At- 
tracted probably  by  the  eagle,  the  flags,  and  the 
brilliant  coloring,  he  bought  the  handkerchief,  read 
the  text,  and  "from  this,"  says  he,  "I  learned 
either  that  there  was  a  constitution  or  that  there 
were  thirteen  States." 

Most  parents  were  then  content  to  send  their 
boys  and  girls  to  school  when  it  was  kept  in  the 
house  nearest  their  homes.  But  the  father  of  Dan- 
iel was  determined  to  give  his  son  the  best  educa- 
tion the  land  afforded,  so  he  was  made  to  follow 
the  master  from  place  to  place.  When  school  was 
held  in  the  middle  house,  but  a  few  miles  off,  he 
walked  to  and  fro  each  day;  when  at  the  western 
end  of  the  district,  Daniel  was  boarded  out  in 
some  family  near  by.  When  no  schooling  was  to 
be  had  the  boy  roamed  the  woods  and  fields  with 
a  rough  old  British  sailor  who  taught  him  to  row 
and  to  fish,  and  filled  his  head  with  stories  of 
bloody  fights  and  strange  adventures  on  land  and 
sea.  For  Jack  had  served  under  Admiral  Byng 
in  the  Mediterranean;  had  deserted  from  the  gar- 
rison at  Gibraltar;  had  wandered  through  Spain, 
France,  and  Holland;  had  been  arrested  and  sent 
back  to  the  army;  had  fought  at  Meriden;  had 
come  over  to  Boston  with  Gage;  had  thrice 
marched  up  Bunker  Hill  on  the  ever-memorable 
day  in  June ;  had  deserted  to  the  Continentals ;  had 


SCHOOL  DAYS  11 

enlisted  in  a  New  Hampshire  regiment,  and,  the 
war  over,  had  built  a  little  cabin  on  one  corner  of 
the  Elms  Farm. 

In  1791,  when  Daniel  had  just  turned  nine,  a  new 
honor  which  deeply  affected  his  later  career  came 
to  his  father.  The  many  evidences  of  confidence 
and  esteem  a  grateful  community  had  bestowed  on 
Ebenezer  Webster  in  the  dark  days  of  the  Revolu- 
tion did  not  cease  with  the  war.  The  leader  in 
strife  remained  a  leader  in  peace,  was  sent  year 
after  year  first  to  one  and  then  to  the  other  branch 
of  the  Assembly,  was  a  delegate  to  the  convention 
which  ratified  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  finally, 
in  1791,  was  placed  on  the  bench  of  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas  for  the  county  in  which  he  resided. 
These  courts  were  composed  of  a  presiding  judge, 
always  an  able  lawyer,  and  two  side  justices,  usu- 
ally laymen  of  hard  common  sense  and  sterling  in- 
tegrity; and  it  was  to  one  of  these  side  justiceships 
that  Ebenezer  Webster  was  appointed.  The  office 
was  one  of  honor  and  dignity,  and  carried  with  it 
an  annual  salary  of  several  hundred  dollars,  just 
enough  to  enable  the  father  to  go  on  with  his  long- 
meditated  plan  for  the  education  of  Daniel. 

Of  his  five  sons,  Ebenezer,  David,  and  Joseph 
had  grown  to  manhood,  were  settled  in  life,  and 
long  past  the  school  age.  To  educate  the  two  re- 
maining, Ezekiel  and  Daniel,  was  beyond  his 
means.  But  if  his  longing  to  see  at  least  one  son 
rise  above  the  humble  calling  of  a  farmer  was  to 


12  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

be  gratified,  it  must  be  one  of  these,  and  to  choose 
which  cost  the  father  a  bitter  struggle.  He  met 
it  with  the  unfaltering  courage  which  marked  the 
man,  made  his  decision,  and  one  day  in  1795  an- 
nounced his  determination.  "On  a  hot  day  in 
July,"  said  Webster,  describing  the  scene  many 
years  later,  "it  must  have  been  in  one  of  the  last 
years  of  Washington's  administration,  I  was  mak- 
ing hay  with  my  father,  just  where  I  now  see  a 
remaining  elm-tree.  About  the  middle  of  the  fore- 
noon the  Hon.  Abiel  Foster,  M.C.,  who  lived  in 
Canterbury,  six  miles  off,  called  at  the  house  and 
came  into  the  field  to  see  my  father.  When  he  was 
gone  my  father  called  me  to  him,  and  we  sat  down 
beneath  the  elm  on  a  haycock.  He  said :  '  My  son, 
that  is  a  worthy  man ;  he  is  a  member  of  Congress  ; 
he  goes  to  Philadelphia  and  gets  six  dollars  a  day, 
while  I  toil  here.  It  is  because  he  had  an  educa- 
tion which  I  never  had.  If  I  had  had  his  education 
I  should  have  been  in  Philadelphia  in  his  place. 
I  came  near  it  as  it  was.  But  I  missed  it,  and  now 
I  must  work  here. '  '  My  dear  father, '  said  I,  '  you 
shall  not  work;  brother  and  I  will  work  for  you, 
and  we  will  wear  our  hands  out,  and  you  shall 
rest/  And  I  remember  to  have  cried,  and  I  cry 
now  at  the  recollection.  'My  child,'  said  he,  'it  is 
of  no  importance  to  me.  I  now  live  but  for  my 
children.  I  could  not  give  your  elder  brothers  the 
advantages  of  knowledge,  but  I  can  do  something 
for  you.     Exert  yourself,   improve  your  oppor- 


REV.  JOSEPH   STEVENS   BUCKMINSTER. 


SCHOOL  DAYS  15 

tunities,  learn,  learn,  and  when  I  am  gone  you  will 
not  need  to  go  through  the  hardships  which  I  have 
undergone,  and  which  have  made  me  an  old  man 
before  my  time. '  ' ' 

Almost  a  year  passed,  however,  before  the  plan 
so  long  cherished  was  fairly  started,  and  Daniel, 
dressed  in  a  brand-new  home-made  suit  and  astride 
a  side-saddle,  rode  with  his  father  to  Exeter  to 
be  entered  at  the  famous  academy  founded  by 
John  Phillips.  The  principal  then  and  forty  years 
thereafter  was  Dr.  Benjamin  Abbot,  one  of  the 
greatest  teachers  our  country  has  yet  produced. 
As  the  doctor  was  ill,  the  duty  of  examining  the 
new  pupil  fell  to  Joseph  S.  Buckminster,  then  an 
usher  at  the  academy,  but  destined  to  influence 
strongly  the  religious  life  of  New  England.  It  was 
the  custom  of  the  doctor,  we  are  told,  to  conduct 
the  examination  of  applicants  with  pompous  cere- 
mony, and  that,  imitating  him,  young  Buckminster 
summoned  Webster  to  his  presence,  put  on  his  hat, 
and  said,  "Well,  sir,  what  is  your  age?"  "Four- 
teen," was  the  reply.  "Take  this  Bible,  my  lad, 
and  read  that  chapter."  The  passage  given  him 
was  St.  Luke 's  dramatic  description  of  the  conspir- 
ing of  Judas  with  the  chief  priests  and  scribes,  of 
the  Last  Supper,  of  the  betrayal  by  Judas,  of  the 
three  denials  of  Peter,  and  of  the  scene  in  the  house 
of  the  high  priest.  But  young  Webster  was  equal 
to  the  test,  and  read  the  whole  passage  to  the  end 
in  a  voice  and  with  a  fervor  such  as  Master  Buck- 


16  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

minster  had  never  listened  to  before.  "  Young 
man,"  said  he,  "you  are  qualified  to  enter  this  in- 
stitution, ' '  and  no  more  questions  were  put  by  him. 
The  voice  and  manner  so  famous  in  later  life  were 
even  then  strikingly  manifest.  But  one  other  gift 
of  nature  still  lay  dormant— he  could  not  declaim. 
Long  after  he  had  become  the  greatest  orator  of 
the  day  he  said  to  a  friend:  "I  could  not  speak 
before  the  school.  Many  a  piece  did  I  commit  to 
memory  and  rehearse  in  my  room  over  and  over 
again,  but  when  the  day  came,  and  the  schoolmas- 
ter called  my  name,  and  I  saw  all  eyes  turned  upon 
my  seat,  I  could  not  raise  myself  from  it.  When 
the  occasion  was  over  I  went  home  and  wept  bitter 
tears^of  mortification. ' ' 

His  stay  at  the  academy  was  short.  At  the  close 
of  the  year  he  was  home  again,  teaching  a  small 
class  of  boys  and  girls  at  his  uncle 's  house  on  the 
North  Road,  and  while  so  engaged  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wood,  minister 
at  Boscawen,  some  six  miles  from  Salisbury.  But 
Dr.  Wood  was  more  than  a  minister:  he  was  an 
educator,  and  in  the  course  of  a  pastorate  covering 
nearly  half  a  century  taught  in  his  own  house, 
often  without  remuneration  and  sometimes  at  the 
cost  of  board  and  lodgings,  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  young  men.  That  so  promising  a  lad  as  Web- 
ster should  be  cut  short  in  his  school  career  seemed 
a  pity,  and  arming  himself  with  the  testimony  of 
Dr.  Abbot,  he  went  to  Colonel  Webster,  said  what 


SCHOOL  DAYS  17 

he  thought,  urged  that  the  boy  be  sent  to  college, 
and  offered  to  fit  him.  Nothing  was  closer  to  the 
father's  heart,  and  the  next  few  months  were  spent 
in  the  house  of  Dr.  Wood. 

The  doctor  took  charge  of  his  Latin;  a  young 
senior  from  Dartmouth  taught  him  some  Greek; 
and  in  August,  1797,  Webster  became  a  freshman 
in  Dartmouth  College,  more  through  the  influence 
of  Trustee  Wood  than  by  merit.  He  had  now 
reached  a  turning-point  in  his  career.  Save  dur- 
ing the  nine  months  spent  at  Phillips  Exeter,  he 
had  never  been  so  far  from  home,  had  never  been 
so  completely  thrown  on  his  own  resources,  nor 
brought  in  close  contact  with  so  many  young  men 
of  his  own  age  and  generation.  He  was  free  to 
make  of  himself  what  he  pleased,  and  acted  accord- 
ingly, following  the  path  of  least  resistance.  Greek 
and  mathematics  he  disliked  and  shunned;  but  he 
read  widely  in  English  literature  and  in  history, 
acquired  a  familiarity  with  Latin  and  with  Latin 
authors,  never  forgot  anything  once  acquired,  was 
always  able  to  display  his  knowledge  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage, was  in  no  sense  a  student  or  a  scholar,  but 
became  the  best-informed  man  in  college,  and  im- 
pressed all  who  met  him  as  a  youth  of  uncommon 
parts,  with  promise  of  being  a  great  man.  "So 
much  as  I  read, ' '  says  he,  "I  made  my  own.  When 
a  half-hour,  or  an  hour  at  most,  had  elapsed,  I 
closed  my  book,  and  thought  over  what  I  had  read. 
If  there  was  anything  peculiarly  interesting  or 


18  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

striking  in  the  passage,  I  endeavored  to  recall  it 
and  lay  it  up  in  my  memory,  and  commonly  could 
effect  my  object.  Then  if,  in  debate  or  conversa- 
tion afterward,  any  subject  came  up  on  which  I 
had  read  something,  I  could  talk  very  easily  so 
far  as  I  had  read,  and  there  I  was  very  careful  to 
stop. ' ' 

As  time  passed,  this  wide  reading  stood  him  in 
good  stead,  and  for  a  year  he  paid  his  board  by 
aiding  in  editing  a  weekly  newspaper  for  which 
he  made  selections  from  books  and  contemporary 
publications,  now  and  then  writing  a  few  para- 
graphs himself.  Nor  were  his  physical  character- 
istics less  striking.  College  mates  never  forgot  his 
deep-set  eyes,  the  solemn  tones  of  his  voice,  the 
dignity  of  his  carriage,  and,  above  all,  his  elo- 
quence. The  old  shyness  that  tormented  him  so  at 
the  academy  was  gone.  At  last  the  greatest  of  his 
natural  gifts  was  developing  rapidly  and  was  used 
freely.  At  first  his  audience  was  the  Society  of 
the  United  Fraternity;  but  his  fame  spread,  and 
when  the  people  of  Hanover  were  casting  about 
for  an  orator  to  speak  to  them  on  the  Fourth  of 
July,  1800,  they  turned  with  one  accord  to  young 
Webster. 

Judged  by  the  side  of  his  later  efforts,  the  ora- 
tion delivered  on  that  day  was  indeed  a  weak  and 
school-boy  production.  Yet  it  is  not  beneath  the 
vast  mass  of  patriotic  speeches  to  which  our  fore- 
fathers gladly  listened,  on  fast-days  and  Thanks- 


the  second  academy  building  (phillips  exeter  academy),  as  it 

stood  when  attended  by  daniel  webster  in  1790. 

daniel  Webster's  house  in  Portsmouth,  new  Hampshire. 


SCHOOL  DAYS  21 

giving  days,  on  the  22d  of  every  February  and  the 
4th  of  every  July,  and  it  richly  deserved  the  honor 
of  publication. 

There  is  plenty  of  that  sort  of  rhetoric  which 
was  the  fashion  of  the  day,  and  without  which  any 
speech,  in  the  opinion  of  the  crowd,  would  have 
been  but  a  poor  affair.  Washington  was  the  man 
who  "  never  felt  a  wound  but  when  it  pierced  his 
country,  who  never  groaned  but  when  fair  freedom 
bled."  Napoleon  is  "the  gasconading  pilgrim  of 
Egypt,  who  will  never  dictate  terms  to  sovereign 
America.' '  Great  Britain  is  "haughty  Albion.' ' 
Columbia  is  now  seated  "in  the  forum  of  the  na- 
tions, and  the  empires  of  the  world  are  amazed  at 
the  bright  effulgence  of  her  glory.' '  The  cannon 
of  our  navy  is  to  "fulminate  destruction  on 
Frenchmen  till  the  ocean  is  crimsoned  with  blood 
and  gorged  with  pirates."  But  the  bombast  de- 
tracts in  no  wise  from  our  interest  in  the  speech. 
On  that  day,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  Webster 
spoke  to  a  popular  audience,  and  to  the  political 
doctrine  then  announced  he  ever  remained  faith- 
ful. Love  of  country,  devotion  to  the  Union,  the 
grandeur  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  blessings  of 
a  free  government  administered  by  the  people, 
made  his  theme.  No  question  of  State  rights  trou- 
bled him.  ' '  In  the  adoption  of  our  present  systems 
of  jurisprudence,"  said  he,  "we  see  the  powers 
necessary  for  government  voluntarily  flowing  from 
the  people,  their  only  origin,  and  directed  to  the 


22  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

public  good,  their  only  proper  object."  It  was  the 
people  of  these  States  "who  engaged  in  the  trans- 
action which  is  undoubtedly  the  greatest  approach 
toward  human  perfection  the  political  world  ever 
yet  witnessed,  and  which,  perhaps,  will  forever 
stand  in  the  history  of  mankind  without  a  par- 
allel.'? 

This  was  rank  Federalism;  but  that  the  lad 
should  be  a  Federalist  was  inevitable.  He  had  been 
reared  at  the  knee  of  a  man  who  had  fought  and 
toiled  and  spent  his  substance  in  the  struggle  for 
independence,  who  had  followed  the  leadership  of 
Washington  in  peace  with  the  same  unfaltering 
loyalty  that  he  had  followed  it  in  war,  and  had  re- 
ceived from  his  father  a  political  creed  of  no  un- 
certain kind.  Since  coming  to  years  of  discretion 
nothing  had  occurred  to  weaken,  but  much  to 
strengthen,  the  belief  so  inherited.  He  had  seen 
a  foreign  power  meddling  in  our  domestic  affairs, 
had  read  the  letter  in  which  Adet  threatened  the 
vengeance  of  France  if  Mr.  Jefferson  were  not 
elected,  and  had  since  beheld  that  insolent  threat 
made  good.  He  had  seen  our  minister  to  the  French 
republic  rejected,  the  X.  Y.  Z.  commissioners  in- 
sulted, and  the  whole  country  roused  to  indignation 
and  ringing  with  the  cry:  "Millions  for  defense, 
but  not  a  cent  for  tribute."  He  had  seen  a  pro- 
visional army  raised  and  Washington  put  in  com- 
mand; he  had  seen  the  young  men  associate  for 
defense,  and  the  old  men  once  again  mount  the 


SCHOOL  DAYS  23 

black  cockade  of  the  Revolution,  as  an  open  de- 
fiance to  those  who,  to  their  shame,  wore  the  tri- 
color of  France ;  he  had  seen  seaport  after  seaport 
arm  and  equip  a  vessel  of  war,  and  had  beheld  the 
little  navy  so  created  triumph  over  every  foe  and 
bring  France  at  last  to  reason. 

All  these  things,  in  his  opinion,  took  place  be- 
cause a  large  part  of  his  countrymen  had  been  deaf 
to  the  advice  of  Washington,  had  quit  their  own 
to  stand  on  foreign  ground,  and  had  formed  in 
America  a  party  warmly  devoted  to  France.  ' '  But 
why,"  he  asked,  "shall  every  quarrel  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic  interest  us  in  its  issue?  Why 
shall  the  rise  or  depression  of  every  party  there 
produce  here  a  corresponding  vibration !  Was  this 
continent  designed  as  a  mere  satellite  to  the  other! 
Has  not  nature  here  wrought  all  operations  on  her 
broadest  scale?  .The  natural  superiority  of  Amer- 
ica clearly  indicates  that  it  was  designed  to  be  in- 
habited by  a  nobler  race  of  men,  possessing  a 
superior  form  of  government,  superior  patriotism, 
superior  talents,  and  superior  virtues.  Let,  then, 
the  nations  of  the  East  muster  their  strength  in 
destroying  each  other.  Let  them  aspire  to  con- 
quest and  contend  for  dominion  till  their  continent 
is  deluged  in  blood.  But  let  none,  however  elated 
by  victory,  however  proud  of  triumph,  ever  pre- 
sume to  intrude  on  4he  neutral  position  assumed 
by  our  country."  A  little  later  these  ideas  found 
expression  in  the  Monroe  Doctrine. 


CHAPTER  II 

STRUGGLING   WITH   POVEKTY   AND   LAW 

THE  year  after  the  Hanover  speech  Webster 
was  graduated  from  Dartmouth,  and  went 
back  to  his  father 's  farm,  there  to  decide  the  hard- 
est question  he  had  yet  encountered ;  for  he  was  to 
make  up  his  mind  what  he  would  do  for  a  living, 
and  how  he  must  set  about  the  doing  of  it.  No 
strong  taste,  no  feeling  of  special  fitness  for  any- 
thing, guided  him  in  his  choice,  and  with  much  re- 
luctance and  great  indifference  he  finally  entered 
the  office  of  Thomas  W.  Thompson  and  began  the 
study  of  law,  where,  six  years  before,  as  a  bare- 
foot urchin  of  thirteen,  he  had  served  as  office-boy 
and  told  the  clients  when  they  called  where  Mr. 
Thompson  was  to  be  found. 

"I  have  precipitated  myself  in  an  office,' '  he 
wrote  to  his  friend  Bingham,  "with  how  much 
prudence  I  do  not  allow  myself  to  think.  I  am  not, 
like  you,  harassed  with  dreams,  nor  troubled  with 
any  waverings  of  inclination ;  but  am  rather  sunken 
in  indifference  and  apathy.' '  To  another  friend 
he  wrote:  "I  fell  into  a  law  office,  pretty  much  by 
casualty,  after  commencement,  where  I  am  at  pres- 

24 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        25 

ent.  Considering  how  long  I  must  read,  prospects 
are  not  very  flattering,  but  perhaps  I  may  find 
room  hereafter,  in  some  wilderness  where  the  vio- 
let has  not  resigned  her  tenement,  to  make  writs 
without  disturbance  of  rivals  if  there  should  be 
nobody  to  purchase.' ' 

In  Mr.  Thompson's  office  Webster  thus  fairly 
started  on  his  career,  read  Vattel,  Montesquieu, 
and  Blackstone,  the  histories  of  Robertson  and 
Hume,  and  was  deep  in  the  plays  of  Shakspere  and 
the  poetry  of  Milton,  Cowper,  and  Pope,  when  his 
studies  were  suddenly  cut  short  by  the  dire  need 
of  money.  Yielding  to  his  earnest  pleadings,  his 
father,  who  indeed  "lived  but  for  his  children," 
had  consented  that  Ezekiel  should  have  the  same 
chance  in  the  world  that  had  been  given  to  him, 
and  the  lad  had  entered  Dartmouth  College.  But 
the  family  treasury  was  empty.  Money  must  be 
had,  and  to  get  it  Daniel  once  more  became  a 
teacher,  accepted  the  charge  of  an  academy,  and 
having  purchased  a  horse  and  stuffed  his  saddle- 
bags with  clothes  and  books,  rode  across  country 
to  the  little  town  of  Fryeburg,  Maine.  His  salary 
was  to  be  three  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year; 
but  the  county  register,  with  whom  he  boarded, 
gave  him  the  work  of  copying  deeds  sent  to  be  re- 
corded, and  so  enabled  him  to  earn  a  trifle  more. 
Of  a  long  winter's  evening  he  could  copy  two 
deeds,  for  which  he  was  paid  fifty  cents.  "Four 
evenings  in  a  week,"  says  he,  "I  earned  two  dol- 


26  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

lars,"  and  one  dollar  and  three  quarters  "a  week 
paid  my  board. ' '  But  it  did  more :  it  enabled  him 
to  save  every  cent  of  salary,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
first  quarter  he  rode  across  the  hills  to  Hanover 
and  put  all  of  it  into  the  hands  of  his  brother  for 
college  expenses. 

After  teaching  for  nine  months  at  Fryeburg, 
Webster  went  back  to  the  study  of  law  at  Salis- 
bury. The  academy  trustees  would  gladly  have 
retained  him,  and  offered  nearly  twice  the  old  sal- 
ary, a  house,  and  a  plot  of  ground ;  and,  what  was 
quite  as  alluring,  a  clerkship  in  the  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas  seemed  quite  within  reach.  For  a  time 
he  was  sorely  tempted. 

"What  shall  I  do!"  he  wrote.  "Shall  I  say, 
'Yes,  gentlemen,'  and  sit  down  here  to  spend  my 
days  in  a  kind  of  comfortable  privacy,  or  shall  I 
relinquish  these  prospects  and  enter  into  a  pro- 
fession where  my  feelings  will  be  constantly  har- 
rowed by  objects  either  of  dishonesty  or  misfor- 
tune; where  my  living  must  be  squeezed  from 
penury  (for  rich  folks  seldom  go  to  law),  and  my 
moral  principle  continually  be  at  hazard?  I  agree 
with  you  that  the  law  is  well  calculated  to  draw 
forth  the  powers  of  the  mind,  but  what  are  its 
effects  on  the  heart;  are  they  equally  propitious! 
Does  it  inspire  benevolence  and  awake  tenderness ; 
or  does  it,  by  a  frequent  repetition  of  wretched  ob- 
jects, blunt  sensibility  and  stifle  the  still,  small 
voice  of  mercy! 


WEBSTER  S   HOUSE,"   DARTMOUTH    COLLEGE,  WHERE    DANIEL 
WEBSTER   ROOMED    WHEN   A   STUDENT. 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        29 

' i  The  talent  with  which  heaven  has  intrusted  me 
is  small,  very  small,  yet  I  feel  responsible  for  the 
use  of  it,  and  am  not  willing  to  pervert  it  to  pur- 
poses reproachful  or  unjust,  nor  to  hide  it,  like 
the  slothful  servant,  in  a  napkin. 

"Now  I  will  enumerate  the  inducements  that 
draw  me  toward  the  law.  First,  and  principally, 
it  is  my  father's  wish.  He  does  not  dictate,  it  is 
true,  but  how  much  short  of  dictation  is  the  mere 
wish  of  a  parent  whose  labors  of  life  are  wasted 
on  favors  to  his  children!  Even  the  delicacy  with 
which  this  wish  is  expressed  gives  it  more  effect 
than  it  would  have  in  the  form  of  a  command.  Sec- 
ondly, my  friends  generally  wish  it.  They  are 
urgent  and  pressing.  My  father  even  offers  me— 
I  will  sometime  tell  you  what— and  Mr.  Thompson 
offers  my  tuition  gratis,  and  to  relinquish  his  stand 
to  me. 

' i  On  the  whole,  I  imagine  I  shall  make  one  more 
trial  in  the  ensuing  autumn.' '  In  the  end  the  fa- 
ther's wish  prevailed,  and  he  was  soon  back  again 
in  the  office  of  Mr.  Thompson,  struggling  with  pov- 
erty, eager  for  a  wider  field  of  action,  and  longing 
for  the  day  to  come  when  some  "miracle,"  as 
he  said,  would  enable  him  to  finish  his  studies  in 
Boston. 

His  poverty  at  this  time  was  dire.  At  the  close 
of  his  service  in  the  Fryeburg  Academy,  when  all 
his  savings  had  gone  to  aid  Ezekiel,  he  writes  to  a 
friend:  "You  will  naturally  inquire  how  I  prosper 


30  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

in  the  articles  of  cash.  Finely !  finely !  I  came  here 
in  January  with  a  horse  and  watch,  etc.,  and  a 
few  ' rascally  counters'  in  my  pocket.  Was  soon 
obliged  to  sell  my  horse  and  live  on  the  proceeds. 
Still  straitened  for  cash,  I  sold  my  watch,  and 
made  a  shift  to  get  home,  where  my  friends  sup- 
plied me  with  another  horse  and  another  watch. 
My  horse  is  sold  again,  and  my  watch  goes,  I  ex- 
pect, this  week ;  thus  you  see  how  I  lay  up  cash. ' ' 

After  his  return  to  Salisbury  he  writes  to  his 
brother :  ' '  Now,  Zeke,  you  will  not  read  half  a  sen- 
tence, no,  not  one  syllable,  before  you  have  thor- 
oughly searched  this  sheet  for  scrip ;  but,  my  word 
for  it,  you  will  find  no  scrip  here.  We  held  a  san- 
hedrim this  morning  on  the  subject  of  cash;  could 
not  hit  upon  any  way  to  get  you  any;  just  before 
we  went  away  to  hang  ourselves  through  disap- 
pointment, it  came  into  our  heads  that  next  week 
might  do.     .     .     . 

"I  have  now  by  me  two  cents  in  lawful  Federal 
currency;  next  week  I  will  send  them,  if  they  be 
all;  they  will  buy  a  pipe;  with  a  pipe  you  can 
smoke ;  smoking  inspires  wisdom ;  wisdom  is  allied 
to  fortitude;  from  fortitude  it  is  but  one  step  to 
stoicism,  and  stoicism  never  pants  for  this  world's 
goods;  so  perhaps  my  two  cents,  by  this  process, 
may  put  you  quite  at  ease  about  03811."  While 
this  letter  was  on  its  way  to  Hanover,  Ezekiel,  who 
was  much  in  need  of  a  "warm  greatcoat,"  of  any 
kind  or  color  of  cloth,  provided  it  would  "keep 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        31 

the  frost  out,"  wrote:  "Money,  Daniel,  money. 
As  I  was  walking  down  to  the  office  after  a  letter, 
I  happened  to  find  one  cent,  which  is  the  only 
money  I  have  had  since  the  second  day  after  I 
came  on.  It  is  a  fact,  Dan,  that  I  was  called  on 
for  a  dollar  where  I  owed  it,  and  borrowed  it,  and 
have  borrowed  it  four  times  since  to  pay  those  I 
borrowed  of." 

What  should  be  Webster 's  life  work  was  now  set- 
tled ;  but  he  had  still  to  decide  where  he  could  per- 
form it,  and  a.  long  list  of  places  was  passed  in 
review.  To  his  friend  James  Bingham,  who  wrote 
to  ask  if  it  were  true  that  he  was  to  settle  in  Ver- 
mont, he  replied : ' '  My  father  has  an  important  suit 
at  law  pending  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ver- 
mont. This  has  frequently  called  me  into  that 
realm  in  the  course  of  the  past  summer.  Mr.  Marsh 
of  Woodstock  is  of  counsel  to  us,  wherefore  I  have 
made  him  several  visits  in  arranging  the  necessary 
preliminaries  to  trial.  This  circumstance,  I  fancy, 
originated  the  suggestion  that  I  contemplated  read- 
ing in  his  office.  In  reality,  I  have  no  such  idea  in 
my  head  at  present.  Heretofore  I  have  been  in- 
clined to  think  of  Vermont  as  a  place  of  practice, 
and  as  preparatory  therefor  have  thought  it  possi- 
ble that  I  might  read  a  year  in  that  State;  but  I 
never  carried  my  views  so  far  as  to  fix  on  an  office, 
and  at  this  time  have  no  views  at  all  of  that  kind. 

"Secondly.  You  have  heard  that  I  contem- 
plated   finishing    my    studies    in    Massachusetts. 


32  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

There  is  more  foundation  for  this  than  the  other. 
It  is  true  I  have  laid  many  plans  to  enable  myself 
to  be  some  time  in  Boston  before  I  go  into  prac- 
tice, but  I  did  not  know  that  I  had  mentioned  the 
circumstance  abroad,  because  it  is  all  uncertain. 
I  believe  that  some  acquaintance  in  the  capital  of 
New  England  would  be  very  useful  to  us  who  ex- 
pect to  plant  ourselves  down  as  country  lawyers. 
But  I  cannot  control  my  fortune;  I  must  follow 
wherever  circumstances  lead.  My  going  to  Bos- 
ton is  therefore  much  more  a  matter  of  hope  than 
of  probability;  unless  something  like  a  miracle 
puts  the  means  in  my  hands,  I  shall  not  budge  from 
here  very  soon.  Depend  on  it,  however,  James, 
that  I  shall  sometime  avail  myself  of  more  advan- 
tages than  this  smoky  village  affords.  But  when 
and  where  you  and  I  know  equally  well.  If  my 
circumstances  were  like  yours,  I  would  by  all 
means  pass  a  six  months  in  Boston.  The  acquain- 
tances you  would  be  like  to  form  there  might  help 
you  to  much  business  in  the  course  of  life.  You 
can  pass  that  time  there  just  as  well  as  not,  and 
I  therefore  advise  to  it,  as  far  as  I  ought  to  advise 
to  anything.  But '  some  men  are  born  with  a  silver 
spoon  in  their  mouths,  and  others  with  a  wooden 
ladle.'  " 

A  little  later,  in  March  of  1804,  he  confides  to 
the  same  friend  the  fact  that  "several  gentle- 
men of  the  profession  have  mentioned  to  me 
two  or  three  towns,  in  Cheshire  County,  where 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        33 

an  industrious  young  man  might  probably  make 
a  moderate  living.  Washington,  Westmoreland, 
and  Chesterfield  have  been  named.  As  to  the  first, 
if  you  settle  at  Lempster,  as  I  suppose  you  will, 
it  will  be  too  near  to  you ;  so  let  that  go.  The  other 
two  I  wish  you  to  write  to  me  about  as  particularly 
as  you  can.  I  know  I  am  in  great  season,  as  I  have 
a  year  longer  to  read,  but  there  are  some  other  rea- 
sons which  induce  me  to  wish  to  know  generally 
what  part  of  the  country  I  shall  inhabit.  It  is 
more  than  probable  that  I  shall  be  leaving  this 
place  in  April  or  May.  If  I  could  think  it  likely 
that  I  should  hereafter  find  a  resting-place  at  some 
town  in  Cheshire,  I  should  be  fond  of  reading  in 
that  quarter  awhile.  Now  you  know,  if  I  could 
have  my  wish,  I  should  be  as  fond  of  being  in  Mr. 
West's  office  as  anywhere.  Silence!  Don't  whis- 
per a  word;  don't  ever  think  aloud,  but  ponder 
these  matters  a  little  at  the  bottom  of  your  heart 
and  write  me.  Inquire  if  any  charitable,  clever 
fellow  at  Charlestown  would  keep  me  and  get  his 
pay  when  he  could.  Utter  not  a  word  for  the  soul 
of  you,  but  let  me  hear  from  you  forthwith." 

His  friend  having  made  the  inquiry,  and  having 
answered  that  "Mr.  West  leaves  the  matter  with 
me, ' '  Webster  replied : 

"I  am  now  going,  James,  to  give  you  a  full 
survey  of  the  i whole  ground'  as  it  respects  my 
prospects,  hopes,  and  wishes.  The  great  object  of 
a  lawyer  is  business;  but  this  is  not,  or  ought  not 


34  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

to  be,  his  sole  object.  Pleasant  society,  an  agree- 
able acquaintance,  and  a  degree  of  respectability 
not  merely  as  a  lawyer,  but  as  a  man,  are  other 
objects  of  importance.  You  and  I  commenced  the 
study,  you  know,  with  a  resolution,  which  we  did 
not  say  much  about,  of  being  honest  and  conscien- 
tious practitioners.  Some  part  of  this  resolution 
is,  I  hope,  still  hanging  about  me,  and  for  this  rea- 
son I  choose  to  settle  in  a  place  where  the  practice 
of  the  bar  is  fair  and  honorable.  The  Cheshire 
bar,  as  far  as  I  have  learned,  is  entitled  to  a  pref- 
erence in  these  respects  over  that  of  any  county  in 
the  State.  You  know  my  partiality  for  Connecti- 
cut River  folks  generally.  Their  information  and 
habits  are  far  better,  in  my  opinion,  than  those  of 
the  people  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State.  These 
reasons  compel  me  to  say  with  you,  'it  is  a  goodly 
land, '  and  to  make  it  my  wish  to  settle  therein. 

"E  contra.  Many  of  my  friends  are  desirous 
that  I  should  make  an  attempt  to  live  in  Ports- 
mouth. Mr.  Thompson,  my  good  master,  knows 
everything  about  the  comparative  advantages  of 
different  places  everywhere  in  New  Hampshire, 
except  Cheshire  County.  He  has  frequently  sug- 
gested to  me  that  Portsmouth  would  be  a  good 
place  for  a  young  man ;  and  the  other  evening,  when 
I  hinted  my  inclination  for  Cheshire,  he  said  he 
had  a  high  esteem  for  the  people  that  way,  but 
added  that  he  still  wished  me  to  consider  Ports- 
mouth.   He  says  there  are  many  gentlemen  of  char- 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        35 

acter  there  who  would  patronize  a  young  lawyer, 
and  thinks  that  even  Mr.  Attorney-General  would 
be  fond  of  the  thing. 

' '  Mr.  T.  will  have  business  on  which  I  shall  be  at 
Portsmouth  as  soon  as  the  roads  are  passable,  and, 
out  of  respect  to  his  opinion,  I  shall  make  no  cer- 
tain arrangements  for  my  future  reading  till  that 
time.  At  present  I  do  not  feel  that  Portsmouth  is 
the  place  for  me. ' ' 

In  this  state  of  uncertainty  Daniel  turned  next 
to  his  brother,  then  teaching  school  in  Boston. 
"Agreeably  to  your  injunction,"  said  Ezekiel,  "I 
have  thought  and  meditated  upon  your  letter  for 
three  days  and  for  no  inconsiderable  portion  of 
three  nights,  and  I  now  give  you  the  results  as 
freely  as  I  earnestly  wish  your  welfare.  I  am  di- 
rectly opposed  to  your  going  to  New  York,  and  for 
several  reasons.  First,  the  expensiveness  of  a  jour- 
ney to  that  city  and  of  a  residence  in  it  is,  with  me, 
a  material  objection.  Secondly,  the  embarrass- 
ments to  which  you  will  be  liable  without  friends 
to  assist  or  patronage  to  support  you.  Thirdly,  I 
fear  the  climate  would  be  injurious  to  your  consti- 
tution. I  have  now  told  you  what  I  would  not 
have  you  do,  and  I  also  tell  you  what  I  wish  you 
to  do.  I  would  have  you  decamp  immediately, 
with  all  your  baggage,  from  Salisbury,  and  march 
directly  to  this  place.  This  is  the  opinion  I  have 
maturely  formed,  for  which  a  thousand  reasons 
might  be  urged.     They  are  too  numerous  to  be 


36  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

mentioned,  nor  is  it  perhaps  necessary,  for  I  say 
to  you  imperatively,  'Come.'  It  is  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  for  a  fellow  of  any  enterprise  or 
ability  to  support  himself  here,  very  handsomely, 
without  descending  to  any  business  incompatible 
with  the  situation  of  a  gentleman.  Here,  too,  is 
the  focus  of  information.  Any  person,  however 
stupid  and  inefficient,  cannot  but  learn  something. 
With  a  head  ever  so  impenetrable,  some  ideas  will 
penetrate  it.  I  will  state  to  you  a  single  circum- 
stance which,  I  think,  will  remove  all  doubt  about 
paying  your  way.  I  have  now  eight  scholars  in 
Latin  and  Greek  whom  I  shall  be  obliged  to  dis- 
miss if  I  cannot  have  an  assistant,  and  I  dare  not 
at  present  hire  one.  The  tuition  of  these  eight 
scholars  will  pay  for  your  board.  They  re- 
cite twice  in  a  day,  and  it  will  take  you  about 
three  fourths  of  an  hour  to  hear  them  each  time. 
Here,  then,  you  can  support  yourself  by  the  labor 
of  one  hour  and  a  half  each  day.  If  you  will  spend 
that  time  in  my  school  daily,  I  will  board  you  at 
as  genteel  a  boarding-house  as  you  can  wish  or  the 
place  affords.  Consult  father,  the  family,  and 
your  friends,  and  start  for  Boston  the  next  day 
after  the  receipt  of  this  letter.  Another  such  an 
opportunity  may  never  occur.  Come,  and  if  you 
don't  find  everything  to  your  liking,  I  will  carry 
you  back  to  Salisbury  with  a  chaise  and  six,  and 
pay  you  for  your  time.  I  must  say  again,  consult 
father;  if  he  approves,  take  the  patriarchal  bless- 
ing and  come." 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        37 

This  advice  Daniel  decided  to  take,  and  promptly 
replied :  l  i  Salisbury,  you  perceive,  as  yet  heads  my 
letters,  and  how  much  longer  it  may  I  can  hardly 
tell.  I  know  it  is  much  better  for  me  to  be  ab- 
sent, and  I  am  zealously  laboring  to  put  myself  into 
a  new  situation.  If  I  recollect,  I  informed  you  my 
intention  was  to  depart  as  soon  as  it  is  possible  for 
me  to  get  a  little  cash  to  enable  me  to  rig  out ;  for 
when  I  leave  this  vale,  emphatically  a  'vale  of 
tears,'  I  am  determined  to  be  under  no  obliga- 
tions to  anybody  in  the  neighborhood  except  those 
of  gratitude  and  friendship.  I  never  heard  what 
particular  substance  Archimedes  wished  his  de- 
sired fulcrum  to  be,  resting  on  which  he  was  going 
to  move  the  world;  but  if  his  design  had  been  to 
move  everything  in  it,  he  would  have  wished  it 
cash ;  of  all  things  of  a  perishable  nature,  it  is  worth 
the  most.  It  ever  did,  does  now,  and  ever  will  con- 
stitute the  real,  unavoidable  aristocracy  that  exists 
and  must  exist  in  society.  I  had  an  expectation  of 
putting  into  execution  a  plan  that  would  have  made 
me  able  to  see  you  immediately.  It  was  well  laid, 
and  I  begged  of  father  to  attend  to  it  last  week  at 
court,  but  he  forgot  it." 

The  plan  was,  of  course,  to  borrow  money,  and, 
having  failed,  a  month  and  more  sped  by  before 
he  was  able  to  write : 

"Day  after  to-morrow,  if  the  wind  blows  from 
the  right  point,  I  start  for  East  Andover;  on  this 
tour  I  expect  to  be  absent  about  twelve  days,  and 
soon  after  my  return  here  I  expect  to  be  in  Bos- 


38  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

ton.  The  season  is  now  so  far  advanced,  I  intend 
to  make  my  calculation  so  as  to  be  merely  season- 
able in  town,  to  learn  the  arrangements  of  your 
school  and  be  able  to  manage  it  till  you  go  after 
your  degree.  Now,  I  want  you  to  be  particular. 
Some  time  ago  you  mentioned  to  me  a  few  Latin 
and  Greek  scholars ;  since  then  you  keep  glued  lips 
on  the  subject  of  your  school.  I  desire  to  know 
whether  you  can  employ  me,  how  many  hours  per 
day,  in  what  doing,  and  for  what  reward?  All 
these  questions  you  must  certainly  answer,  and 
have  your  answers  here  by  the  time  I  return.  Tell 
me  into  whose  office  I  had  better  go;  whether  let- 
ters of  introduction,  and  from  whom,  would  be  use- 
ful ;  in  short,  tell  me  everything. ' ' 

The  plan  thus  formed  was  firmly  held  to,  and 
one  day  in  July,  1804,  Webster  entered  Boston, 
and  set  off,  without  friends  or  even  letters  of  in- 
troduction, to  find  an  office  in  which  to  study.  The 
youth  who  had  given  his  school  to  Ezekiel  went 
along,  and  in  the  course  of  their  search  they  pre- 
sented themselves  one  day  to  Mr.  Christopher 
Gore,  told  him  that  Webster  was  from  the  country, 
had  studied  law,  had  come  to  Boston  to  work,  not 
to  play,  was  most  desirous  to  be  his  pupil,  and 
asked  that  a  place  be  kept  for  him  till  letters  could 
be  had  from  New  Hampshire.  Impressed  by  the 
presence  and  seriousness  of  the  unknown  youth, 
Mr.  Gore  talked  with  Webster  awhile,  and  when 
he  was  about  to  go  said:  "You  look  as  though 


CHRISTOPHER  GORE. 


•:i 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        41 

you  might  be  trusted.  You  say  you  come  to  study, 
not  to  waste  time.  I  will  take  you  at  your  word. 
You  may  hang  up  your  hat  at  onee  and  write  at 
your  convenience  to  New  Hampshire  for  your  let- 
ters." Describing  the  scene  in  a  letter,  Webster 
declares  that  when  he  was  introduced  by  his  friend, 
who  was  as  much  a  stranger  as  he  to  Mr.  Gore,  his 
name  was  pronounced  indistinctly,  and  that  he 
was  a  week  in  the  office  before  Mr.  Gore  knew  what 
to  call  him.  "This,"  he  said,  "I  call  setting  out 
in  the  world.  But  I  most  devoutly  hope  that  I 
shall  never  have  to  set  out  again. ' ' 

The  acquaintance  thus  begun  fast  ripened  into  a 
friendship,  of  which  Mr.  Gore  soon  gave  a  signal 
proof.  The  clerk  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  of 
which  Ebenezer  Webster  was  a  side  justice,  having 
died,  the  chief  justice  promptly  tendered  the  office 
to  Daniel.  The  place  yielded,  in  fees,  some  fifteen 
hundred  dollars  a  year,  a  sum  sufficient  to  enable 
him  to  raise  the  load  of  family  debt,  make  his  fa- 
ther's last  days  comfortable,  be  independent,  help 
Ezekiel,  and  in  time  lift  the  mortgage  on  the  farm. 
Overjoyed  at  such  good  fortune,  he  hurried  with 
the  news  to  Mr.  Gore,  who  astonished  him  with 
the  remark,  "You  don't  mean  to  accept  it,  surely." 
"I  told  him,"  says  Webster,  "as  soon  as  I  could 
speak,  that  I  had  no  thought  of  anything  else. 
'Well,'  said  he,  'you  must  decide  for  yourself;  but 
come,  sit  down,  and  let  us  talk  it  over.  The  office 
is  worth  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year,  you  say. 


42  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

Well,  it  will  never  be  worth  any  more.  Ten  to 
one,  if  they  find  out  it  is  so  much,  the  fees  will  be 
reduced.  You  are  appointed  now  by  friends; 
others  may  fill  their  places  who  are  of  different 
opinions,  and  who  have  friends  of  their  own  to 
provide  for.  You  will  lose  your  place ;  or,  suppos- 
ing you  do  retain  it,  what  are  you  but  a  clerk  for 
life?  Go  on,  and  finish  your  studies ;  you  are  poor 
enough,  but  there  are  greater  evils  than  poverty. 
Live  on  no  man's  favor.  What  bread  you  eat,  let 
it  be  the  bread  of  independence. '  ' ' 

Webster  had  now  reached  another  turning-point 
in  his  career.  The  temptation  to  accept  the  clerk- 
ship was  great.  "Here,"  said  he,  "was  present 
comfort,  competency,  and,  I  may  even  say,  riches, 
as  I  then  viewed  things,  all  ready  to  be  enjoyed, 
and  I  was  called  upon  to  reject  them  for  the  un- 
certain and  distant  prospect  of  professional  suc- 
cess. ' '  But  the  advice  of  Mr.  Gore  was  sound,  and 
was  taken,  to  the  bitter  regret  of  the  father,  whose 
heart  was  set  on  seeing  his  son  clerk  of  the  court. 
He  had  long  had  the  office  in  view  for  Daniel;  to 
disappoint  him  was  hard,  but  it  had  to  be  done, 
and  Webster  with  a  heavy  heart  went  home  to  do 
it.  "I  got  home,"  he  said,  when  describing  the 
scene  in  after  years,  "one  afternoon,  just  after  sun- 
set, and  saw  my  father  in  his  little  room,  sitting 
in  his  arm-chair.  He  was  pretty  old  then.  His 
face  was  pale  and  his  cheeks  sunken,  and  his  eyes, 
which  were  always  very  large  and  black,  seemed 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        43 

larger  and  blacker  than  I  ever  saw  them.  He 
seemed  glad  to  see  me,  and  almost  as  soon  as  I  sat 
down  he  said :  '  Well,  Daniel,  we  have  got  that  office 
for  you.'  'Yes,  father,'  said  I.  'The  gentlemen 
were  very  kind.  I  must  go  and  thank  them.' 
'They  gave  it  to  you  without  my  saying  a  word 
about  it.'  'I  must  go  and  see  Judge  Farrar,  and 
tell  him  I  am  much  obliged  to  him.'  And  so  I 
talked  about  it  very  carelessly,  and  tried  to  make 
my  father  understand  me.  At  last  he  began  to 
have  some  suspicion  of  what  I  meant,  and  he 
straightened  himself  up  in  his  chair,  and  looked 
at  me  as  though  he  would  look  me  through.  '  Dan- 
iel, Daniel/  said  he,  'don't  you  mean  to  take  that 
office  ? '  '  No,  indeed,  father, '  said  I ;  '  I  hope  I  can 
do  better  than  that.  I  mean  to  use  my  tongue  in 
the  courts,  not  my  pen ;  to  be  an  orator,  not  a  regis- 
ter of  other  men 's  acts. '  For  a  moment  I  thought 
he  was  angry.  He  looked  at  me  for  as  much  as 
a  minute,  and  then  said  very  slowly:  'Well,  my 
son,  your  mother  has  always  said  you  would  come 
to  something  or  nothing,  she  was  not  sure  which. 
I  think  you  are  now  about  settling  that  doubt  for 
her.'  " 

Having  thus  announced  his  purpose  to  be  a 
lawyer,  not  a  clerk,  Webster  went  back  to  the  office 
of  Mr.  Gore,  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas  in  Boston  in  March,  1805,  and 
opened  an  office  in  the  little  town  of  Boscawen,  hard 
by  Elms  Farm,  that  he  might  be  near  his  father. 


44  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

* '  Yon  must  know, '  '  lie  wrote  to  his  friend  Bing- 
ham, "that  I  have  opened  a  shop  in  this  village 
for  the  manufacture  of  justice  writs.  Other  me- 
chanics do  pretty  well  here,  and  I  am  determined 
to  try  my  luck  among  others.  March  25  I  left  Bos- 
ton, with  a  good  deal  of  regret,  I  assure  you.  I 
was  then  bound  for  Portsmouth;  but  I  found  my 
father  extremely  ill  and  little  fit  to  be  left  by  all 
his  sons,  and  therefore,  partly  through  duty,  partly 
through  necessity,  and  partly  through  choice,  I 
concluded  to  make  my  stand  here. ' ' 

Another  letter  tells  of  his  success.  "It  is  now 
eight  months  since  I  opened  an  office  in  this  town, 
during  which  time  I  have  led  a  life  which  I  know 
not  how  to  describe  better  than  by  calling  it  a 
life  of  writs  and  summonses.  Not  that  I  have 
dealt  greatly  in  those  articles,  but  that  I  have 
done  little  else.  My  business  has  been  just  about 
so  so ;  its  quantity  less  objectionable  than  its  qual- 
ity. I  shall  be  able  at  the  end  of  the  year  to  pay 
my  bills  and  j)ay  perhaps  sixty  pounds  for  my 
books.  I  practise  in  Hillsborough,  Rockingham, 
and  Grafton.  .  .  .  Last  year  I  wrote  a  pam- 
phlet in  two  days,  which  1  have  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  kicked  about  under  many  tables.  But  you 
are  one  of  the  very  few  who  know  the  author  of 
the  'Appeal  to  the  Old  Whigs.'  " 

At  Boscawen  Webster  lived  for  two  years  and 
more,  found  plenty  of  time  to  read  and  study, 
added  still  more  to  his  reputation  as   a  public 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        47 

speaker,  and  wrote  a  couple  of  essays  for  the 
"Monthly  Anthology,' '  a  Boston  magazine  from 
which  the  present  "North  American  Review' '  is 
descended. 

Concerning  his  work  as  a  lawyer,  innumerable 
traditions  have  come  down  to  us.  One  presents 
him  as  arguing  his  first  case  before  the  court  of 
which  his  father  was  a  judge.  Another  pictures 
him  as  pleading  a  cause  so  ably  before  the  chief 
justice  that  his  Honor  remarked,  on  leaving  the 
court-house,  that  he  had  "never  before  met  such 
a  young  man  as  that."  A  third  recalls  a  famous 
murder  trial  in  the  course  of  which  Webster  aston- 
ished all  present  by  his  deep  insight  into  the  work- 
ings of  the  human  mind,  and  depicted  the  infirmi- 
ties of  human  nature  with  such  eloquence  that  the 
jury  and  the  bystanders  were  moved  to  tears. 
These  tales  were  told  long  after  Mr.  Webster  had 
become  famous,  and  are  to  be  treated  accordingly. 
That  he  was  a  good  lawyer  with  a  steadily  grow- 
ing practice,  was  an  effective  public  speaker,  and 
had  won  no  little  local  fame  before  removing  to 
Portsmouth,  is  all  that  is  certain. 

This  removal  took  place  in  1807.  His  father 
was  then  dead,  and  feeling  no  longer  bound  to 
waste  his  energies  on  the  petty  business  of  a  coun- 
try attorney,  Daniel  made  over  his  office  to  Ezekiel, 
and  during  nine  years  was  a  citizen  in  the  great 
seaport  and  chief  town  of  New  Hampshire.  While 
living    in    Portsmouth    he    married    Miss    Grace 


48  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

Fletcher,  who  became  the  mother  of  his  five  chil- 
dren: a  daughter,  Grace,  who  died  while  a  girl;  a 
son,  Daniel  Fletcher ;  a  daughter,  Julia ;  a  son,  Ed- 
ward, who  died  of  disease  in  the  Mexican  War; 
and  a  son,  Charles,  who  died  while  an  infant. 

From  a  business  standpoint  the  change  was  most 
fortunate.  The  cases  that  came  to  him  were  far 
more  important  than  any  in  Boscawen.  They 
brought  him  in  contact  with  the  great  lawyers  of 
the  State,  called  forth  his  best  efforts,  and  made 
him  more  widely  known.  At  Boscawen  and  Salis- 
bury he  was  by  far  the  most  eloquent  speaker,  the 
ablest  lawyer,  the  brightest  young  man  in  the  com- 
munity, and  had  very  naturally  formed  an  esti- 
mate of  himself  which  neither  his  years  nor  his 
experience  justified.  But  at  Portsmouth  he  soon 
found  himself  contending  with  lawyers  who  could 
and  did  teach  him  much  that  he  had  the  good  sense 
to  learn. 

A  story  is  told  of  an  early  encounter  with  Wil- 
liam Plumer,  then  a  senator  from  New  Hampshire, 
and  one  of  the  best  lawyers  in  the  State,  which 
well  illustrates  Webster 's  youthful  manner.  In  the 
course  of  an  argument,  Mr.  Plumer  cited  a  few 
lines  from  a  book  called  "Peake's  Law  of  Evi- 
dence, ' '  whereupon  Webster  scoffed  at  the  passage 
as  bad  law,  ridiculed  the  book  as  a  wretched  com- 
pilation, and,  throwing  it  down  upon  the  table,  ex- 
claimed: "So  much  for  Mr.  Thomas  Peake's  com- 
pendium  of  the  Law   of  Evidence.' '     But   Mr. 


GRACE   FLETCHER   (MRS.    DANIEL   WEBSTER). 


STRUGGLING-  WITH  POVERTY   51 

Plumer,  not  at  all  abashed,  quietly  produced  a  vol- 
ume of  reports,  read  from  it  the  despised  pas- 
sage, and  informed  the  court  that  it  was  taken 
word  for  word  from  one  of  Lord  Mansfield's  de- 
cisions. 

The  man  who  at  this  time  influenced  Webster 
most  powerfully  was  Jeremiah  Mason,  one  of  the 
greatest  masters  of  common  law  our  country  has 
produced.  "If  anybody,' '  said  he,  "should  think 
I  was  somewhat  familiar  with  the  law  on  some 
points,  and  should  be  curious  enough  to  desire  to 
know  how  it  happened,  tell  him  that  Jeremiah 
Mason  compelled  me  to  study  it.  He  was  my  mas- 
ter." No  man  then  practising  at  the  New  Hamp- 
shire bar  was  such  a  "cause-getter,"  and  this  suc- 
cess, as  Webster  was  shrewd  enough  to  see,  was 
due  quite  as  much  to  a  plain  and  simple  manner 
of  speech  as  to  knowledge  of  the  law.  Everything 
which  made  up  what  then  passed  for  oratory  was 
wanting.  No  figures  of  speech,  no  sounding  sen- 
tences, no  bursts  of  eloquence,  no  gestures,  marred 
Mason's  argument.  In  the  language  of  the  plain 
people,  the  language  of  the  market-place  and  the 
farm,  he  said  what  he  had  to  say  and  stopped. 
"He  had  a  habit,"  said  Webster,  "of  standing 
quite  near  the  jury,— so  near  that  he  might  have 
laid  his  finger  on  the  foreman's  nose,— and  then  he 
talked  in  a  plain  conversational  way,  in  short  sen- 
tences, and  using  no  word  that  was  not  level  to 
the  comprehension  of  the  least  educated  man.    This 


52  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

led  me  to  examine  my  own  style,  and  I  set  about 
reforming  it  altogether." 

Mr.  Mason  in  turn  has  left  us  a  description  of 
his  first  encounter  with  Webster :  ' '  It  was  the  first 
case  in  which  he  appeared  at  our  bar;  a  criminal 
prosecution,  in  which  I  had  arranged  a  very  pretty 
defense,  as  against  the  attorney-general,  Atkinson, 
who  was  able  enough  in  his  way,  but  whom  I  knew 
very  well  how  to  take.  Atkinson  being  absent, 
Webster  conducted  the  case  for  him,  and  turned  in 
the  most  masterly  manner  the  line  of  my  defenses, 
carrying  with  him  all  but  one  of  the  jurors,  so  that 
I  barely  saved  my  client  by  my  best  exertions." 
But  he  saved  his  client,  and  in  so  doing  taught 
Webster  a  lesson  he  was  not  slow  to  learn.  Trained 
by  such  experiences,  his  progress  from  a  country 
lawyer  to  a  leader  of  the  bar  was  rapid.  The  rough 
and  overbearing  manner  gave  place  to  a  stately 
and  dignified  courtesy.  The  declamation  that  did 
so  well  on  the  Fourth  of  July  was  replaced  by  a 
style  unsurpassed  in  modern  oratory  for  simpli- 
city and  earnestness.  The  law  was  studied  as  he 
had  never  studied  it  before ;  a  power  was  acquired 
of  going  through  a  mass  of  confusing  arguments 
to  the  very  heart  of  a  question  and  dragging  forth 
the  vital  points ;  and  a  manner  of  close  and  logical 
reasoning  was  cultivated  to  perfection.  A  few 
years  of  such  application  sufficed  to  make  him  a 
great  lawyer  in  the  community.  He  was  retained 
in  the  leading  cases,  followed  the  Supreme  Court 


STRUGGLING  WITH  POVERTY        53 

on  its  circuit,  was  rarely— not  ten  times,  he  says— 
a  junior  counsel,  and  made,  one  year  with  another, 
as  much  as  two  thousand  dollars  annually— a  large 
sum  for  so  poor  a  State  as  New  Hampshire  during 
the  first  decade  of  the  century. 


CHAPTER  III 

ENTRANCE   INTO   POLITICS 

WEBSTER  had  now  reached  his  first  goal. 
Success,  a  good  income,  and  some  leisure 
were  his,  and  having  achieved  this,  he  began  to  be 
drawn  irresistibly  toward  politics.  The  profession 
of  the  law  was  chosen,  he  tells  us,  because  his  father 
wished  it,  because  good  friends  advised  it,  and  be- 
cause the  opportunity  to  make  a  fair  start  was  then 
at  hand.  No  fondness  for  the  profession,  no  belief 
that  he  was  specially  fitted  for  the  work,  prompted 
him  in  the  choice  of  a  career. 

To  fish  and  shoot,  "to  contemplate  nature,  and 
to  hold  communion,  unbroken  by  the  presence  of 
human  beings,  with  this  universal  frame,  thus  won- 
drous fair,"  to  read  the  masterpieces  of  Latin  and 
English  literature,  to  study  history  and  govern- 
ment, and  now  and  then  write  a  paper  for  the 
"Monthly  Anthology"  or  deliver  an  oration  on 
some  historic  day,  were  far  more  to  his  liking  than 
cross-examining  witnesses  and  pleading  before 
juries. 

Notwithstanding  this  early  dislike  for  law,  Web- 
ster was  long  in  entering  on  that  career  in  which 

54 


ENTRANCE  INTO  POLITICS  55 

his  name  and  fame  were  made,  and  passed  his 
thirtieth  birthday  without  holding  a  political  office 
of  any  kind.  He  had  not,  however,  been  unmind- 
ful of  what  was  going  on  about  him,  and  had  often 
been  called  on  for  a  Fourth-of-July  oration.  In 
1802  he  spoke  at  Fryeburg,  in  1805  at  Salisbury, 
and  in  1806  before  the  "Federal  Gentlemen  of 
Concord. ' ' 

The  Fryeburg  address  was  not  printed,  but  long 
after  Webster  was  dead  a  bundle  of  papers  found 
its  way  to  an  old  junk-shop  in  Boston.  The  pro- 
prietor of  the  shop,  while  rummaging  among  the 
manuscripts,  saw  the  name  of  Webster,  and  making 
a  more  careful  examination,  came  upon  the  original 
of  the  Fryeburg  speech,  which  has  since  been  pub- 
lished. His  theme  was  again  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union,  the  dangers  that  beset  them,  and  the 
duty  of  guarding  them.  He  reminded  his  audience 
that  their  government  was  free,  was  practical,  and 
of  their  own  choice.  No  consul  dictated  it;  no 
philosophers  taught  its  principles;  it  was  not 
brought  to  them,  as  were  those  of  Switzerland  and 
Holland,  by  the  bayonets  of  the  magnanimous  sis- 
ter republic  across  the  Atlantic.  If  they  wished 
to  preserve  it  they  must  love  it,  shun  changes  both 
great  and  small,  and  keep  up  a  high  tone  of  public 
morals.  "When,"  said  he,  "the  public  mind  be- 
comes depraved,  every  attempt  to  preserve  it  is 
in  vain.  Laws  are  then  nullities,  and  constitutions 
waste  paper." 


56  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

At  Concord,  as  at  Fryeburg,  his  subject  was  still 
the  preservation  of  the  Union  and  the  spirit  rather 
than  the  letter  of  the  Constitution.  Indeed,  whole 
passages  were  taken  from  the  Fryeburg  oration, 
of  which  it  was  little  more  than  a  revision  to  suit 
the  great  political  changes  four  years  had  wrought. 

"When  we  speak  of  preserving  the  Constitu- 
tion,' '  said  he,  "we  mean  not  the  paper  on  which 
it  is  written,  but  the  spirit  which  dwells  in  it.  Gov- 
ernment may  lose  all  its  real  character,  its  genius, 
its  temper,  without  losing  its  appearance.  Repub- 
licanism, unless  you  guard  it,  will  creep  out  of  its 
case  of  parchment,  like  a  snake  out  of  its  skin. 
You  may  have  a  despotism  under  the  name  of  a 
republic.  You  may  look  on  a  government  and  see 
it  possess  all  the  external  modes  of  freedom,  and 
yet  find  nothing  of  the  essence,  the  vitality,  of  free- 
dom in  it,  just  as  you  may  contemplate  an  em- 
balmed body,  where  art  hath  preserved  proportion 
and  form,  amid  nerves  without  motion,  and  veins 
void  of  blood." 

It  was  the  liberty  for  which  the  fathers  fought 
at  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill,  the  republic  as  they 
founded  it,  the  Constitution  as  by  them  interpreted, 
that  he  believed  were  injured  by  the  policy  of 
Jefferson. 

Holding  these  views,  he  went  to  Portsmouth, 
and  found  himself  in  a  ship-building,  ship-owning, 
seafaring  community,  whose  very  life  depended  on 
commerce  and  trade,  now  threatened  with  ruin  by 


ENTEANCE  INTO  POLITICS  57 

the  edicts  of  Great  Britain  and  France.  The  Lords 
Commissioners  of  Appeal  in  London  had  declared 
the  broken  voyage  a  fraud  on  the  neutral  flag,  had 
placed  more  than  half  the  commerce  of  America 
under  ban,  and  had  thrown  the  whole  commercial 
world  into  confusion.  British  cruisers  patrolled 
our  coast,  blockaded  our  ports,  searched  our  mer- 
chantmen, impressed  our  seamen,  attacked  the 
Chesapeake  on  the  high  sea,  and  bore  away  three 
sailors  from  her  deck.  By  an  order  in  council, 
Great  Britain  shut  to  neutral  trade  every  port  of 
Europe  from  Brest  to  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe.  Na- 
poleon, by  his  Berlin  decree,  laid  a  blockade  on  the 
coast  of  the  British  Isles,  commanded  British  prop- 
erty to  be  seized  wherever  found,  and  forbade  a 
neutral  ship  that  had  broken  the  voyage  by  so 
much  as  touching  at  a  British  port  to  enter  any 
port  or  colony  of  France.  Great  Britain  retaliated 
and  prohibited  neutral  trade  between  two  ports 
both  of  which  were  in  the  possession  of  France  or 
her  allies,  made  the  ship  and  cargo  lawful  prize 
when  captured,  and  finding  this  of  no  avail,  fol- 
lowed it  with  a  third  order  more  ruinous  still.  All 
the  ports  of  France,  of  her  allies,  of  their  colonies, 
of  any  country  at  war  with  Great  Britain,  all  the 
ports  of  Europe  from  which  for  any  reason  the 
British  flag  was  barred,  were  shut  to  neutral  trade 
save  under  British  license.  It  was  now  the  turn 
of  Napoleon  to  strike  again,  and  he  did  so  with 
his  Milan  decree,  which  denationalized  every  ship 


58  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

whose  captain  touched  at  a  British  port,  bought  a 
British  license,  or  submitted  to  search  by  a  British 
officer,  and  made  the  craft  the  lawful  prize  of  the 
captor,  whether  taken  in  a  port  of  France  or  in 
that  of  one  of  her  allies,  or  seized  on  the  ocean  by 
a  man-of-war  or  privateer. 

That  our  countrymen  in  such  an  emergency 
should  have  hesitated  for  one  moment  what  to  do, 
that  they  should  have  been  divided  in  opinion,  that 
one  great  party  should  have  defended  the  course  of 
Napoleon,  while  another  with  equal  vehemence  jus- 
tified the  conduct  of  King  George,  is  hardly  credi- 
ble. But  so  it  was,  and  the  measures  that  resulted 
were  worthy  of  men  who  carried  their  political 
differences  beyond  low  water.  Fight  for  the  rights 
of  neutrals  and  the  freedom  of  the  sea  they  would 
not;  strike  back  so  vigorously  as  to  wound  France 
and  Great  Britain  they  could  not;  but  to  submit 
with  meekness  they  were  ashamed.  At  least  a  show 
of  resistance  must  be  made,  and  in  the  vain  hope 
of  punishing  the  powers  and  avoiding  the  conse- 
quences of  the  decree  and  the  orders  in  council,  the 
sea  was  abandoned,  the  embargo  was  laid,  and  our 
countrymen  adopted,  in  the  language  of  the  time, 
a  terrapin  policy  and  withdrew  into  their  shell. 

Of  all  the  acts  six-and-fifty  Congresses  have 
placed  on  the  statute-books,  the  most  harmful  were 
the  embargo  law  of  1807  and  its  many  supplements. 
The  first  shut  our  ports  for  an  unlimited  time  and 
stopped  our  foreign  trade.     The  second  exacted 


AN] EL    WEBSTER   AS    A   YOUNG    MAN. 


ENTEANCE  INTO  POLITICS  61 

heavy  bonds  from  those  engaged  in  the  coasting- 
trade.  The  third  spread  the  embargo  over  every 
harbor,  lake,  bay,  sound,  and  river ;  exacted  bonds 
from  the  owners  of  market-boats  and  oyster-boats, 
from  the  broadhorns  that  went  down  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  the  craft  that  pleasure-parties  used  for 
a  day's  fishing;  forbade  export  by  land,  and  sub- 
jected every  cart,  wagon,  wheeled  vehicle,  and 
sleigh  so  engaged  to  forfeiture,  and  their  owners 
to  enormous  fines.  The  fourth  prescribed  that  no 
coaster  should  have  a  clearance  unless  the  loading 
was  done  in  the  presence  of  a  revenue  officer,  nor 
sail  for  a  port  of  the  United  States  near  a  foreign 
possession  without  permission  of  the  President, 
nor  go  anywhere  if  a  collector  thought  fit  to  refuse 
consent.  The  fifth  and  worst  of  all  was  the  Force 
Act.  A  restriction  on  commerce,  originally  in- 
tended to  distress  Great  Britain  and  France,  had 
now  become  perverted  into  an  instrument  for  the 
destruction  of  the  domestic  trade  and  commerce  of 
the  United  States,  and  was  fast  doing  its  work. 
All  New  England  rose  in  resistance.  Never  within 
the  memory  of  men  then  living  had  the  people  been 
more  aroused.  As  a  measure  of  coercion  the  em- 
bargo was  declared  to  be  a  failure;  as  a  commer- 
cial restriction  it  was  held  to  be  unnecessary  and 
ruinous ;  as  a  law,  the  act  to  enforce  it  was  claimed 
to  be  oppressive,  tyrannical,  and  unconstitutional, 
and  its  repeal  was  demanded. 
As  Webster  beheld  the  idle  seamen,  the  disman- 


62  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

tied  ships,  the  grass  growing  on  the  wharves,  the 
closed  warehouses,  and  the  ruined  merchants,  he 
too  began  to  share  the  just  indignation  of  the  com- 
munity, and,  taking  up  his  pen,  wrote  a  Feder- 
alist pamphlet  entitled  ' '  Considerations  on  the  Em- 
bargo.' '  No  name  was  attached,  and  it  was  soon 
lost  to  sight  in  the  mass  of  petitions,  memorials, 
addresses,  and  resolutions  that  poured  forth  from  a 
score  of  towns  and  legislatures.  The  repeal  of  the 
embargo  laws  and  the  press  of  professional  work 
now  turned  him  for  a  time  from  politics;  but  his 
interest  had  been  aroused,  hostility  to  the  policy  of 
the  administration  had  been  awakened,  and  when 
at  last  the  war  opened,  he  at  once  took  the  place 
of  opposition  leader  and  began  his  political  career 
in  earnest. 

The  Washington  Benevolent  Society  of  Ports- 
mouth had  invited  him  to  deliver  an  oration  on  the 
Fourth  of  July,  1812.  Before  the  day  came  Con- 
gress had  declared  that  a  state  of  war  existed  with 
Great  Britain,  and  all  New  England  was  again 
aflame  with  resistance.  As  the  news  passed  from 
one  seaport  to  another,  bells  were  tolled,  shops 
were  shut,  business  was  suspended,  and  the  flags 
on  the  embargoed  shipping  were  raised  to  half- 
mast.  The  sea-power  of  Great  Britain,  the  weak- 
ness of  the  United  States,  the  needlessness  of  the 
war,  the  prospect  of  an  alliance  with  Napoleon, 
the  wisdom  of  the  advice  of  Washington,  the  hos- 
tility of  the  Republicans  to  New  England  and  the 


ENTRANCE  INTO  POLITICS  63 

navy,  the  folly  of  intrusting  the  defense  of  the 
coast  to  a  fleet  of  Jefferson  gunboats,  and  the  duty 
of  carrying  resistance  to  the  verge  of  rebellion, 
were  the  issues  of  the  hour,  and  were  made  topics 
of  the  speech.  Hitherto  the  orations  of  Webster 
on  Independence  Day,  good  as  they  were,  contained 
little  more  than  the  sentiments  and  historical  allu- 
sions suitable  to  that  anniversary.  Now  the  crisis 
furnished  a  theme  deeply  interesting  to  his  audi- 
ence and  to  himself,  and,  rising  to  the  occasion,  he 
delivered  a  speech  which  was  heard  with  delight, 
was  printed,  went  quickly  through  two  editions  in 
pamphlet  form,  and  greatly  added  to  his  local  repu- 
tation. Two  passages  in  particular  were  read  with 
hearty  approval— that  in  which  he  condemned  the 
foreign  policy  of  Jefferson,  and  that  in  which  he 
marked  out  the  proper  course  of  opposition. 

Opposition  of  AVebster's  sort  was,  however,  too 
calm  and  reasonable  to  be  acceptable  to  everybody. 
The  belief  was  wide-spread  that  the  administration 
was  bent  on  the  destruction  of  commerce,  that  it 
longed  for  nothing  so  much  as  the  ruin  of  New 
England,  that  its  measures  were  animated  by  a 
fierce,  implacable  hatred  of  old  England.  Feeling 
ran  high,  party  spirit  was  bitter,  and  in  a  little 
while  notices  appeared  in  the  public  journals  call- 
ing on  all  who  loved  the  memory  of  Washington 
to  attend  a  convention  at  Brentwood  to  consider 
the  state  of  the  Union.  Brentwood  was  a  small 
town  in  Rockingham  County,  some  twenty  miles 


64  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

from  Portsmouth,  and  thither  Webster  went. 
Never  before  had  such  a  gathering  been  known. 
Men  came  by  scores  in  carriages  and  on  horseback, 
till  five  hundred  vehicles  of  all  sorts,  twice  as 
many  horses,  and  two  thousand  men  were  gathered 
in  and  about  the  town.  To  assemble  in  the  meet- 
ing-house was  impossible,  so  a  rough  stage  was 
hastily  put  up  out  of  doors,  a  moderator  was 
chosen,  and  stirring  speeches  were  made  by  sev- 
eral men  well  known  as  popular  orators.  What 
Webster  said  on  this  occasion  has  not  been  pre- 
served, but  one  who  was  present  declares  that  he 
surpassed  himself,  that  he  surprised  those  who 
knew  his  power  and  expected  much,  and  that  he 
held  the  great  throng  spellbound  for  more  than 
ninety  minutes.  When  the  speaking  was  finished 
a  committee  of  seventeen,  of  which  Webster  was 
one,  was  instructed  to  frame  resolutions  and  write 
a  report  expressive  of  the  sense  of  the  meeting, 
while  a  recess  of  two  hours  was  taken. 

To  draft  so  important  a  document  in  so  short  a 
time  would  have  been  a  physical  impossibility. 
But  long  before  the  day  of  meeting  Webster  had 
been  selected  to  prepare  the  report,  and  had 
brought  with  him  a  most  carefully  written  paper. 
As  he  was  far  more  used  to  making  arguments  and 
delivering  orations  than  to  writing  addresses,  he 
seems  to  have  fancied  himself  the  spokesman  of 
the  convention,  and  put  his  report  in  the  form  of 
an  oration  addressed  to  President  Madison.     He 


ENTRANCE  INTO  POLITICS  65 

reviewed  the  course  of  events  leading  up  to  the 
war,  explained  and  justified  the  opposition  of  the 
Federalists  of  New  England,  urged  a  vigorous 
naval  defense,  and  warned  the  President  of  the  dan- 
gers of  an  alliance  with  Napoleon,  and  of  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  Union  which  might  follow  a  steady 
adherence  to  the  present  policy.     He  said: 

' i  We  are,  sir,  from  principle  and  habit,  attached 
to  the  Union  of  the  States.  But  our  attachment  is 
to  the  substance,  and  not  to  the  form.  It  is  to  the 
good  which  this  Union  is  capable  of  providing,  and 
not  to  the  evil  which  is  suffered  unnaturally  to 
grow  out  of  it.  If  the  time  should  ever  arrive  when 
this  Union  shall  be  holden  together  by  nothing  but 
the  authority  of  the  law;  when  its  incorporating, 
vital  principle  shall  become  extinct ;  when  its  prin- 
cipal exercises  shall  consist  in  acts  of  power  and 
authority,  not  of  protection  and  beneficence ;  when 
it  shall  lose  the  strong  bond  which  it  hath  hitherto 
had  in  the  public  affections;  and  when,  conse- 
quently, we  shall  be  one,  not  in  interest  and  mu- 
tual regard,  but  in  name  and  form  only— we,  sir, 
shall  look  on  that  hour  as  the  closing  scene  of  our 
country's  prosperity. 

"We  shrink  from  the  separation  of  these  States 
as  an  event  fraught  with  incalculable  evils,  and  it 
is  among  our  strongest  objections  to  the  present 
course  of  measures  that  they  have,  in  our  opinion, 
a  very  dangerous  and  alarming  bearing  on  such 
an  event.    If  a  separation  of  the  States  ever  should 


66  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

take  place,  it  will  be  on  some  occasion  when  one 
portion  of  the  country  undertakes  to  control,  to 
regulate,  and  to  sacrifice  the  interests  of  another, 
when  a  small  and  heated  majority  in  the  govern- 
ment, taking  counsel  of  their  passions  and  not  of 
their  reason,  contemptuously  disregarding  the  in- 
terests and  perhaps  stopping  the  mouths  of  a  large 
and  respectable  minority,  shall,  by  hasty,  rash, 
and  ruinous  measures,  threaten  to  destroy  essential 
rights  and  lay  waste  the  most  important  interests. 

"It  shall  be  our  most  fervent  supplication  to 
Heaven  to  avert  both  the  event  and  the  occasion, 
and  the  government  may  be  assured  that  the  tie 
which  binds  us  to  the  Union  will  never  be  broken 
by  us." 

The  resolutions  and  the  address  to  the  President 
having  been  adopted,  the  convention  proceeded  to 
nominate  men  to  represent  New  Hampshire  in  the 
Thirteenth  Congress.  The  custom  of  dividing  the 
State  into  as  many  districts  as  it  had  members  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  assigning  to  the 
voters  in  each  the  duty  of  electing  one,  had  not 
then  come  into  use.  Each  party  named  six  candi- 
dates, and  the  general  ticket  so  framed  was  voted 
for  all  over  the  State.  Among  the  six  names  on 
the  Federalist  ticket  now  prepared  at  Brentwood 
was  that  of  Webster,  and  when  the  election  came 
off  it  stood  at  the  head  of  the  poll.  He  received 
two  more  votes  than  any  other  Federalist  and 
twenty-five  hundred  more  than  any  of  the  six  Re- 


ENTRANCE  INTO  POLITICS  67 

publicans.  He  was  now  a  member  of  Congress. 
He  bad  reached  tbe  goal  for  wbicb  bis  fatber 
longed,  and  as  be  beard  tbe  result  of  tbe  botly  con- 
tested canvass,  bis  thoughts  must  have  gone  back 
to  that  day  in  the  hay-field  when  the  stern  old  sol- 
dier told  him  of  a  disappointed  ambition  and  im- 
plored him  to  " learn,  learn,"  that  he  might  not 
be  doomed  to  that  life  of  toil  which  had  made  his 
father  old  before  his  time. 


CHAPTER  IV 

A    CONGRESSMAN    FROM   NEW    HAMPSHIRE 

WHEN  Webster  reached  Washington  in  the 
month  of  May,  1813,  and  took  his  seat  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  his  career  as  a  poli- 
tician began.  Never  before  had  he  filled  any  politi- 
cal office,  elective  or  appointive.  He  came  with  no 
reputation  earned  by  service  of  a  public  sort.  Not 
a  member  of  the  House,  in  all  likelihood,  had  ever 
read  one  of  his  Fourth-of-July  orations,  or  had 
ever  heard  him  argue  a  case,  or,  unless  from  New 
England,  had  ever  heard  his  name.  Yet  the  strik- 
ing presence  of  the  man  attracted  notice,  and  when 
Speaker  Clay  was  forming  the  committees,  he  chose 
Webster  to  be  the  one  representative  of  the  Feder- 
alists on  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations.  At 
the  head  of  that  committee  was  Calhoun.  The  en- 
trance of  Webster  into  Congress,  therefore,  com- 
pleted the  great  triumvirate  of  American  politics, 
and  the  three  men  whose  names  thenceforth  for 
forty  years  are  never  absent  from  our  annals  met 
for  the  first  time. 

As  one  of  the  minority  party,  Webster's  duties 
for  a  while  lay  easy  upon  him.    He  was  responsible 


CONGRESSMAN  69 

for  nothing  but  reasonable  opposition,  and  while 
waiting  for  something  to  oppose,  spent  his  days 
mingling  with  the  strange  society  of  the  capital. 
"I  went  yesterday  to  make  my  bow  to  the  Presi- 
dent. I  do  not  like  his  looks  any  better  than  I  like 
his  administration.  I  think  I  could  find  clearly  in 
his  features  embargo,  non-intercourse,  and  war. 
Dawson  and  Findlay  are  the  makers  of  all  motions. 
Findlay  makes  his  from  the  journal  of  the  last 
session,  which  he  holds  in  his  hands  and  reads. 
Dawson  is  as  inspired  an  animal  as  one  could  wish 
to  see." 

Nothing  seemed  to  Webster  more  noticeable  than 
the  absence  of  women ;  for  few  congressmen  could 
then  afford  to  bring  their  families  to  Washington 
and  there  maintain  them  on  six  dollars  a  day.  ' '  A 
few  ladies,"  says  he,  "are  to  be  seen  by  going  to 
the  weekly  rout  at  the  palace;  but  they  are  there 
only  as  so  many  curiosities,  rarae  aves,  fit  for  all 
the  purposes  of  social  life  save  only  the  unimpor- 
tant particulars  of  speaking  and  being  spoken  to. 
I  understand  that  in  the  winter  session,  when  there 
are  more  ladies  in  the  city,  the  aforesaid  evil  is  in 
some  degree  mitigated.  I  have  been  to  the  levee,  or 
drawing-room,  but  once.  It  is  a  mere  matter  of 
form.  You  make  your  bow  to  Mrs.  Madison,  and 
to  Mr.  Madison  if  he  comes  in  your  way;  but  he, 
being  there  merely  as  a  guest,  is  not  officially  en- 
titled to  your  conge.  M.  Serurier,  Mme.  Bona- 
parte, the  Russian  minister,  heads  of  departments 


70  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

and  tails  of  departments,  members  of  Congress, 
etc.,  etc.,  here  and  there  interspersed  with  military 
and  naval  hat  and  coat,  make  np  the  gronp.  You 
stay  from  five  minutes  to  an  hour,  as  you  please, 
eat  and  drink  what  you  can  catch  without  danger 
of  surfeit,  and  if  you  can  luckily  find  your  hat  and 
stick,  then  take  French  leave;  and  that  's  going  to 
the  'levee.'  " 

But  it  was  not  in  search  of  social  pleasure  that 
Webster  went  to  Washington.  The  Congress  had 
been  called  in  extra  session  to  find  a  way  to  help 
the  government  out  of  the  straits  into  which  a 
long  series  of  military  and  financial  disasters  had 
brought  it.  Those  splendid  sea  victories  which 
make  the  years  1812  and  1813  glorious  in  our  his- 
tory were  still  of  constant  occurrence.  But  the  war 
on  land  had  failed  miserably.  The  conquest  of 
Canada,  so  boldly  predicted,  had  not  been  achieved. 
Hull  had  surrendered  one  army  at  Detroit.  An- 
other still  lingered  on  the  banks  of  the  Niagara. 
A  third,  sent  to  attack  Montreal,  was  in  winter 
quarters  in  New  York. 

The  loan  on  which  the  administration  depended 
for  means  with  which  to  carry  on  the  war,  after 
being  twice  rejected  by  the  people,  had  been  sold 
to  a  syndicate  at  a  heavy  discount.  The  coast  from 
Point  Judith  to  the  Mississippi  River  was  closely 
blockaded,  and  New  England  was  in  a  state  of 
angry  resistance  which  bordered  on  rebellion. 

As  a  member  of  a  New  England  delegation,  it 


CONGRESSMAN  71 

was  now  the  duty  of  Webster  to  carry  opposition 
to  the  war  and  the  administration  from  the  town- 
meeting  to  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. In  just  what  that  opposition  should  consist, 
had  been  stated  by  him  in  a  speech  before  the 
Washington  Benevolent  Society  at  Portsmouth  on 
the  Fourth  of  July,  1812 : 

"Resistance  and  insurrection  form  no  part  of 
our  creed.  The  disciples  of  Washington  are  nei- 
ther tyrants  in  power  nor  rebels  out.  If  we  are 
taxed  to  carry  on  this  war,  we  shall  disregard  cer- 
tain distinguished  examples,  and  shall  pay.  If  our 
personal  services  are  required,  we  shall  yield  them 
to  the  precise  extent  of  our  constitutional  liability. 
At  the  same  time  the  world  may  be  assured  that 
we  know  our  rights  and  shall  exercise  them.  We 
shall  express  our  opinions  on  this,  as  on  every 
measure  of  government,  I  trust,  without  passion; 
I  am  certain,  without  fear. 

"We  believe,  then,  that  this  war  is  not  the  re- 
sult of  impartial  policy.  If  there  be  cause  of  war 
against  England,  there  is  still  more  abundant  cause 
of  war  against  France.  The  war  is  professedly 
undertaken  principally  on  account  of  the  continu- 
ance of  the  British  orders  in  council.  It  is  well 
known  that  those  orders,  odious  as  they  are,  did 
not  begin  the  unjust  and  vexatious  system  prac- 
tised upon  neutrals,  nor  would  that  system  end  with 
those  orders  if  we  should  obtain  the  object  of  the 
war  by  procuring  their  repeal.     The  decrees  of 


72  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

France  are  earlier  in  point  of  time,  more  extrava- 
gant in  their  pretensions,  and  tenfold  more  inju- 
rious in  their  consequences.  They  are  aggravated 
by  a  pretended  abrogation,  and,  holding  our  under- 
standings in  no  higher  estimation  than  our  rights, 
that  nation  requires  us  to  believe  in  the  repeal  of 
edicts  the  daily  operation  of  which  is  manifest  and 
visible  before  our  eyes." 

Having  thus  declared  himself  in  favor  of  a  bold 
criticism  of  the  conduct  of  the  administration,  and 
having  been  elected  by  the  votes  of  men  bitterly 
opposed  to  the  war  as  unnecessary,  partial,  and 
unjust,  it  would  never  do  to  go  back  to  Portsmouth 
without  at  least  one  blow  against  "Mr.  Madison's 
war."  That  he  should  strike  such  a  blow  was  all 
the  more  necessary  because  the  opposition  in  the 
House  was  unorganized  and  unled.  There  was  no 
well-defined  plan  of  action;  no  "steering  commit- 
tee ' '  to  see  that  a  plan,  if  formed,  was  carried  out  ; 
no  one  man  on  the  floor  who  stood  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  Federalists  that  Calhoun  did  to  the 
Republicans.  In  this  state  of  affairs  Webster  chose 
to  act  for  himself,  and  before  he  had  been  three 
weeks  in  the  House,  he  offered  a  set  of  resolutions 
which  brought  him  at  once  into  public  notice. 

The  long  embargo,  having  failed  to  compel  either 
power  to  remove  its  restrictions  on  neutral  com- 
merce, had  been  replaced,  in  March,  1809,  by  the 
non-intercourse  act,  which  had  been  enforced  as 
to  France  and  suspended  as  to  Great  Britain  by 


CONGRESSMAN  73 

agreement  with  her  minister.  But  the  act  of  the 
minister  had  been  promptly  disavowed  by  Great 
Britain,  and  non-intercourse  restored,  while  Napo- 
leon struck  back  with  the  secret  decree  of  Vienna, 
which  never  was  published,  but  sequestered  every 
ship  that  came  to  any  port  within  Napoleon's 
power. 

The  non-intercourse  act  of  1809,  having  failed, 
as  did  the  embargo,  to  produce  the  wished-f or  effect 
on  France  and  Great  Britain,  was  repealed  in  1810 
and  replaced  by  Macon  bill  No.  2,  which  restored 
commercial  relations  with  all  the  world,  but  bade 
the  President,  "in  case  either  Great  Britain  or 
France  shall,  before  the  3d  day  of  March  next 
[1811],  so  revoke  or  modify  her  edicts  as  that  they 
shall  cease  to  violate  the  neutral  commerce  of  the 
United  States,"  to  forbid  intercourse  with  the  na- 
tion which  had  not  revoked  its  edicts.  Quick  to 
see  the  advantage  afforded,  Napoleon  declared, 
through  his  minister  Cadore  (August  5,  1810),  that 
the  decrees  of  Berlin  and  Milan  were  repealed, 
and  would  cease  to  have  effect  after  November  1, 
provided  Great  Britain  revoked  her  orders  in  coun- 
cil or  the  United  States  should  ' '  cause  their  rights 
to  be  respected  by  the  English."  Accepting  this 
statement  as  proof  of  repeal,  Madison,  on  No- 
vember 2,  issued  a  proclamation  announcing  the 
fact,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  informed 
the  collectors  of  customs  that  three  months  from 
that  day  (on  February  2,  1811)  commercial  inter- 


74  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

course  with  Great  Britain  would  end,  unless  the 
orders  in  council  should  be  recalled  before  the 
expiration  of  the  three  months'  period.  But  Great 
Britain  denied  that  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees 
were  repealed,  refused  to  recall  or  modify  the  or- 
ders in  council,  and  the  war  followed. 

In  their  attacks  on  the  administration  the  Fed- 
eralists took  the  ground  that  if  war  had  to  come 
it  should  have  been  made  against  France  as  well 
as  Great  Britain;  that  she  was  the  first  to  attack 
neutrals;  that  she  was  still  their  enemy;  that  the 
Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  had  never  been  repealed, 
and  in  proof  of  this  pointed  to  the  speech  of  Napo- 
leon in  March,  1811,  to  the  deputies  from  the  Han- 
seatic  League,  plainly  stating  that  "the  decrees  of 
Berlin  and  Milan  are  the  fundamental  laws  of  my 
empire,"  and  to  decisions  of  the  French  courts  of 
admiralty.  The  Republicans  in  reply  declared  that 
war  on  France  would  be  infamous ;  that  her  decrees 
were  not  in  force;  and  pointed  to  other  decisions 
of  the  French  admiralty  courts  and  to  a  letter  of 
M.  Champagny,  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  as- 
serting that  the  decrees  had  been  revoked. 

In  the  midst  of  this  angry  dispute,  the  President 
laid  before  Congress  a  document  that  made  mat- 
ters worse  than  before.  It  was  a  letter  from  the 
American  minister  at  Paris  stating  that  one  day  in 
May,  1812,  the  Duke  of  Bassano  had  assured  him 
that  the  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  had  been  re- 
voked as  far  back  as  April,  1811 ;  that  their  revoca- 


CONGRESSMAN  75 

tion  had  been  announced  to  our  then  minister ;  and 
that  a  copy  of  the  repealing  decree  had  been  sent 
to  the  French  minister  at  Washington  for  delivery 
to  the  Secretary  of  State.  If  this  were  so,  then 
Madison,  the  Federalists  claimed,  had  suppressed 
the  information ;  had  furnished  Great  Britain  with 
her  only  pretext  for  refusing  to  recall  the  orders 
in  council;  had  suffered  his  country  to  enter  on 
a  war  ruinous  to  trade ;  and  was  responsible  for  all 
the  distress,  all  the  expense,  and  all  the  blood  that 
had  been  or  might  be  shed.  The  Republicans  en- 
tered a  flat  denial  to  all  this,  and  did  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  Bassano  had  lied.  The  question  thus 
turned  on  the  veracity  of  the  duke,  and  a  demand 
was  made  "that  the  subject  be  brought  into  notice 
at  the  approaching  session  of  Congress,  and  that 
measures  be  taken  which  will  at  least  force  the 
President  to  say  whether  the  declaration  of  Bas- 
sano to  Mr.  Barlow  is  true  or  false.' ' 

Seizing  on  this  as  a  good  ground  from  which 
to  attack  the  administration,  Webster  made  it  the 
subject  of  his  resolutions  of  inquiry.  He  called 
on  the  President  to  inform  the  House  when,  by 
whom,  and  in  what  manner  the  repeal  of  the  French 
decrees  was  first  made  known  to  the  government; 
whether  Mr.  Russell,  the  late  charge  of  the  United 
States  at  Paris,  had  ever  admitted  or  denied  the 
truth  of  the  statement  of  the  Duke  of  Bassano; 
whether  the  French  minister  at  Washington  ever 
informed  the  government  of  the  repeal  of  the  de- 


76  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

crees;  and,  in  case  the  first  information  was  that 
communicated  to  Mr.  Barlow  by  the  Duke  of  Bas- 
sano  in  1812,  whether  the  government  had  ever 
required  of  France  any  explanation  why  the  re- 
pealing decree  had  so  long  been  concealed,  and  if 
such  explanation  had  been  given,  whether  it  had 
been  followed  by  a  remonstrance. 

The  debate  which  now  arose  ran  on  for  four 
days,  greatly  excited  the  House,  drew  large  crowds, 
and  was  still  at  its  height  when  the  opposition  gave 
way,  and  each  resolution  was  carried  by  a  hand- 
some majority. 

Webster's  story  of  what  happened  during  the 
four  days  is  told  in  a  series  of  daily  letters  to  his 
friend  March,  in  New  York.  "The  resolutions, ' ' 
which  he  forwards  to  Mr.  March,  with  a  request  to 
insert  them  in  the  "Commercial  Advertiser"  and 
send  copies  to  certain  gentlemen  he  names,  "were 
offered  yesterday.  What  the  House  will  do  with 
them  I  cannot  say.  The  question  to  consider  was 
carried— one  hundred  and  thirty-two  to  twenty- 
eight.  I  have  done  what  I  thought  my  duty.  I  am 
easy  about  the  result.' '  "Mr.  Bibb  asked  me  not 
to  call  up  my  resolutions  till  to-morrow.  He  said 
he  was  willing  to  vote  for  the  four  first.  Whether 
he  really  so  intends  I  cannot  say.  If  the  party 
wishes  to  oppose  them  and  give  us  battle,  so  be  it. 
If  any  fault  is  found  with  my  resolutions  in  your 
city,  let  me  know  it." 

"The  resolutions  have  passed,  unaltered  except- 


CONGRESSMAN  79 

ing  the  usual  saving  clause  in  the  last  resolution, 
which  was  left  out  by  accident.  I  made  no  speech. 
When  I  came  to  the  House  this  morning,  Calhoun 
told  me  the  motion  for  indefinite  postponement 
would  be  withdrawn,  his  motion  to  amend  with- 
drawn, and  he  and  some  of  his  friends  should  vote 
for  these  resolutions  as  they  are.  I,  of  course, 
could  not  object.  They  have  acted  very  strangely. 
A  dozen  motions  made  and  withdrawn— some  pull- 
ing one  way,  some  another.  They  do  not  manage 
like  so  many  Solomons. ' ' 

"No  one,"  said  a  newspaper  of  the  day,  "who 
hurried  to  the  House  yesterday  morning  expected 
an  abandonment  of  all  opposition  on  the  part  of 
the  majority.  But  such  was  the  fact.  Many  of 
the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  voted  for  the 
resolution.  This  singular  and  unexpected  com- 
promise, after  a  debate  that  promised  to  excite  not 
a  little  asperity,  has  puzzled  every  one  not  informed 
of  the  reasons  which  induced  the  majority  to  con- 
cede the  information.  We  think  it  highly  probable 
that  the  President  has  been  consulted  on  the  sub- 
ject and  has  advised  the  observance  of  the  course 
ultimately  adopted. ' '  The  resolutions  having  been 
approved  by  the  House,  Webster  and  a  fellow- 
member  were  sent  with  them  to  the  White  House, 
or,  to  use  his  own  words,  "Mr.  Rhea,  after  my 
resolutions  passed,  made  a  little  resolution  calling 
for  information  on  the  Prince  Regent's  Declara- 
tion—passed.   The  Speaker  has  appointed  me  and 


80  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

old  Rhea  to  carry  the  resolutions  to  the  palace!!— 
I  never  swear.' ' 

"You  have  learned  the  fate  of  my  resolutions, ' ' 
"Webster  wrote  to  his  brother.  "We  had  a  warm 
time  of  it  for  four  days,  and  then  the  other  side 
declined  further  discussion.  I  had  prepared  my- 
self for  a  little  speech,  but  the  necessity  of  speak- 
ing was  prevented.  I  went  with  Rhea  of  Tennessee 
to  deliver  the  resolutions  to  the  President.  I  found 
him  in  bed,  sick  of  a  fever.  I  gave  them  to  him, 
and  he  merely  answered  that  they  would  be  at- 
tended to.  We  have  received  no  answer."  In  an- 
other letter  he  draws  a  more  graphic  picture:  "I 
went  on  Tuesday  to  the  palace  to  present  the  reso- 
lutions. The  President  was  in  his  bed,  sick  of  a 
fever,  his  nightcap  on  his  head,  his  wife  attending 
him.  I  think  he  will  find  no  relief  from  my  pre- 
scription. .  .  .  How  will  Madison  answer  the 
part  of  [the]  resolutions  calling  for  his  correspon- 
dence with  Serurier?  In  truth,  there  never  was  a 
party  acted  so  awkwardly  as  the  Demos  did  through 
the  whole  of  that  business.' '  But  "he  will  be  fol- 
lowed up  on  that  subject.  An  inquiry  into  the 
failure  on  the  frontier  is  talked  of;  I  think  there 
will  not  be  any  time  this  session.  We  have  sev- 
eral projects,  and  a  good  many  good  hands  to  give 
a  lift.  We  are  trying  to  organize  our  opposition 
and  bring  all  our  forces  to  act  in  concert.  There 
is  recently  appointed  a  kind  of  committee  to  super- 
intend our  concerns. ' '    Of  this  Webster  was  a  mem- 


CONGRESSMAN  81 

ber.  A  career  of  six  weeks  in  the  House  had  made 
him  a  leader  of  his  party  and  brought  him  reputa- 
tion as  a  speaker.  One  who  was  present  when  the 
resolutions  were  offered  asserts  that  no  member 
"ever  riveted  the  attention  of  the  House  so  com- 
pletely in  his  first  speech";  that  "members  left 
their  seats  and  came  out  on  the  floor  that  they 
might  see  him  face  to  face;  listened  attentively, 
and  when  he  finished,  went  up  and  warmly  con- 
gratulated the  orator. "  But  a  better  testimonial 
as  to  the  effect  of  that  maiden  speech  is  furnished 
by  Chief  Justice  Marshall.  Nearly  twenty  years 
later,  when  the  name  of  Webster  was  known  over 
all  the  land,  a  copy  of  his  ' '  Speeches  and  Forensic 
Arguments"  was  sent  to  the  great  judge,  who  went 
straightway  to  Justice  Story,  and  expressed  his 
regret  that  two  were  not  in  the  collection— that  on 
the  resolutions  calling  for  proof  of  the  repeal  of 
the  French  decrees,  and  another  on  the  previous 
question.  "I  read  these  speeches,"  said  Marshall, 
"with  very  great  pleasure  and  satisfaction  at  the 
time.  When  the  first  was  delivered  I  did  not  know 
Mr.  Webster;  but  I  was  so  much  struck  with  it 
that  I  did  not  hesitate  then  to  state  that  Mr.  Web- 
ster was  a  very  able  man,  and  would  become  one 
of  the  very  first  statesmen  in  America,  and  per- 
haps the  very  first." 

When  at  last  the  President's  answer  came,  Web- 
ster had  gone  back  to  Portsmouth,  and  action  was 
put  off  to  the  regular  session.    By  that  time  the 


82  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

steering  committee  had  formed  a  plan  of  opposi- 
tion, and  when  the  session  was  well  under  way, 
one  member  offered  resolutions  calling  on  the 
President  for  an  account  of  the  state  of  our  rela- 
tions with  France,  another  for  information  ex- 
plaining the  cause  of  the  failure  of  our  arms  along 
the  northern  frontier,  and  Webster  for  the  consid- 
eration of  the  President's  answer  to  his  resolutions 
of  the  last  session.  To  this  the  House  consented 
so  far  as  to  make  them  the  order  for  a  certain  day ; 
but  the  discussion  never  took  place.  *  *  They  are  de- 
termined, ' '  he  wrote  to  his  brother,  ' i  not  to  take  up 
my  resolutions  this  session;  of  this  I  am  certain. 
But  on  the  loan  bill  we  hope  to  get  a  blow  at  them. ' ' 
His  own  chance  "to  get  a  blow  at  them"  came 
when  the  bill  for  the  encouragement  of  enlistments 
was  put  upon  its  passage.  While  the  details  of  the 
bill  were  under  debate  he  said  nothing;  but  when 
it  had  been  read  the  third  time  he  could  contain 
himself  no  longer,  and  hastily  putting  together  an 
outline  of  what  he  would  say,  delivered  the  first  of 
his  many  celebrated  speeches. 

"I  inclose  you,"  he  wrote  to  Ezekiel,  "a  few 
creatures  called  speeches.  One  of  them  you  will 
find  I  have  corrected,  in  some  of  its  printer 's  errors, 
with  my  pen.  Please  do  the  same  with  the  rest 
before  they  go  out  of  your  hands.  I  shall  send  a 
few  to  your  townsmen ;  you  will  learn  who  by  look- 
ing at  the  post-office,  for  I  have  not  my  list  by  me 
now,  and  so  cannot  say  exactly  for  whom  I  shall 


CONGRESSMAN  83 

send  to  you.  Of  those  that  come  to  your  hands 
give  them  in  my  name  to  those  you  think  proper, 
Federalists  or  Democrats. 

' '  The  speech  is  not  exactly  what  it  ought  to  be ; 
I  had  not  time.  I  had  no  intention  of  speak- 
ing till  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  delivered 
the  thing  about  two.  I  could  make  it  better,  but 
I  dare  say  you  think  it  would  be  easier  to  make  a 
new  one  than  to  mend  it.  It  was  well  enough  re- 
ceived at  the  time,  and  our  side  of  the  House  said 
they  would  have  it  in  this  form.  So  much  for 
speeches. ' ' 

"The  thing,"  as  he  states,  was  hastily  put  to- 
gether; but  it  had  little  to  do  with  the  questions 
under  debate  and  much  with  the  policy  of  the  ad- 
ministration. All  the  pent-up  opposition  which 
had  been  rankling  in  his  breast  since  he  first  took 
his  seat  in  the  House  now  found  an  outlet.  The 
speech  was  really  delivered  to  his  constituents,  was 
at  best  only  a  good  campaign  document,  and,  be- 
fore election  day  came  around,  was  used  as  such. 
But  when  he  next  addressed  the  House  his  sub- 
ject was  more  serious,  and  he  had  something  to  say 
on  a  question  soon  to  become  a  living  issue. 

The  President,  in  a  special  message  to  the  House, 
had  asked  for  an  embargo.  Our  coast  from  Rhode 
Island  southward  was  then  in  a  state  of  rigorous 
blockade ;  but  New  England  was  not  molested,  and 
into  her  ports  came  British  ships  disguised  as  neu- 
trals and  loaded  with  such  goods  as  found  a  ready 


84  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

market  in  the  South.  These,  loaded  on  wagons, 
were  carried  as  far  as  Charleston  and  Augusta. 
But  the  raw  cotton  the  wagons  brought  back  to 
Newburypbrt  and  Boston  was  less  in  value  than 
the  manufactured  wares  they  took  to  the  Carolinas 
and  Georgia,  and  a  heavy  balance  remained  to  be 
settled  in  specie.  To  stop  this  trade,  prevent  the 
export  of  gold  and  silver,  inflict  on  the  seaports 
of  New  England  the  same  hardships  the  blockade 
imposed  elsewhere,  and  cut  off  the  supply  of  food 
passing  the  boundary  into  Canada,  was  the  object 
of  Madison's  request.  With  it  Congress  at  once 
complied,  and  the  first  act  of  the  session  was  an- 
other embargo  law.  But  scarcely  was  it  in  force 
when  a  vessel  arrived  at  Annapolis  with  the  offer 
of  Castlereagh  to  negotiate  for  peace,  and  with 
newspapers  describing  the  defeat  at  Leipsic.  Na- 
poleon was  now  overthrown;  the  armies  of  the 
Allies  had  crossed  the  Rhine;  Holland  was  given 
her  old-time  boundary;  and  all  decrees  and  orders 
in  council  were  things  of  the  past.  To  keep  up 
an  embargo  was  madness,  and  in  March,  1814, 
Madison  asked  for  its  repeal.  The  message  was 
hailed  by  all  Federalists  with  delight,  and  when 
the  bill  repealing  the  whole  restrictive  system  was 
before  the  House,  Webster  gave  expression  to  his 
feelings  in  joyous  terms. 

"I  am  happy  to  be  present  at  the  office  now  to 
be  performed,  and  to  act  a  part  in  the  funeral  cere- 
monies of  what  has  been  called  the  restrictive  sys- 


CONGRESSMAN  85 

tern.  The  occasion,  I  think,  will  justify  a  temper- 
ate and  moderate  exultation  on  the  part  of  those 
who  have  constantly  opposed  this  system  of  poli- 
tics and  uniformly  foretold  its  miserable  end.  I 
congratulate  my  friends  on  the  triumph  of  their 
principles.  At  the  same  time,  I  would  not  refuse 
condolence  to  the  few  surviving  friends  to  whose 
affections  f^  -  .deceased  was  precious,  who  are  over- 
whelmed with  affliction  at  its  sudden  dissolution, 
and  who  sorrow  most  of  all  that  they  shall  see  its 
face  no  more.  The  system,  sir,  which  we  are  now 
about  to  explode,  is  likely  to  make  no  inconsider- 
able figure  in  our  history.  It  was  originally  offered 
to  the  people  of  this  country  as  a  kind  of  political 
faith.  It  was  to  be  believed,  not  examined.  They 
were  to  act  upon,  not  reason  about,  it.  No  saint 
in  the  calendar  ever  had  a  set  of  followers  less  at 
liberty  or  less  disposed  to  indulge  troublesome  in- 
quiry than  some,  at  least,  of  those  on  whom  this 
system  depended  for  support.  Yet,  notwithstand- 
ing all  this,  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye,  the  whole  system  is  dissolved.  The  embargo 
act,  the  non-importation  act,  and  all  the  crowd  of 
additions  and  supplements,  together  with  all  their 
garniture  of  messages,  reports,  and  resolutions, 
are  tumbling  undistinguished  into  one  common 
grave.  But  yesterday  this  policy  had  a  thousand 
friends  and  supporters;  to-day  it  is  fallen  and 
prostrate,  and  few  'so  poor  to  do  it  reverence. ' 
6 '  Sir,  a  government  which  cannot  administer  the 


86  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

affairs  of  a  nation  without  producing  so  frequent 
and  such  violent  alterations  in  the  ordinary  occu- 
pations and  pursuits  of  private  life  has,  in  my 
opinion,  little  claim  to  the  regard  of  this  commu- 
nity. It  has  been  said  that  the  system  of  commer- 
cial restrictions  was  favorable  to  domestic  manu- 
factures, and  that  if  it  did  nothing  but  induce  the 
habit  of  providing  for  our  own  wants  by  our  own 
means,  it  would  deserve  to  be  esteemed  a  blessing. 
Something  is,  indeed,  said  in  the  message  in  rela- 
tion to  the  continuance  of  the  double  duties  'as  a 
more  effectual  safeguard  and  encouragement  to 
our  growing  manufactures.'  Sir,  I  consider  the 
imposition  of  double  duties  as  a  mere  financial 
measure.  Its  great  object  was  to  raise  revenue,  not 
to  foster  manufactures.  In  respect  to  manufac- 
tures it  is  necessary  to  speak  with  some  precision. 
"I  am  not,  generally  speaking,  their  enemy;  I 
am  their  friend :  but  I  am  not  for  rearing  them,  or 
any  other  interest,  in  hotbeds.  I  would  not  legis- 
late precipitately,  even  in  favor  of  them.  I  feel 
no  desire  to  push  capital  into  extensive  manufac- 
tures faster  than  the  general  progress  of  our  wealth 
and  population  propels  it.  I  am  not  in  haste  to  see 
Sheffields  and  Birminghams  in  America.  Until  the 
population  of  the  country  shall  be  greater  in  pro- 
portion to  its  extent,  such  establishments  would 
be  impracticable  if  attempted,  and  if  practicable, 
they  would  be  unwise.  I  am  not  anxious  to  accel- 
erate the  approach  of  the  period  when  the  great 
mass  of  American  labor  shall  not  find  its  employ- 


CONGRESSMAN  87 

ment  in  the  field ;  when  the  young  men  of  the  coun- 
try shall  be  obliged  to  shut  their  eyes  upon  external 
nature,  upon  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  im- 
merse themselves  in  close  and  unwholesome  work- 
shops ;  when  they  shall  be  obliged  to  shut  their  ears 
to  the  bleating  of  their  own  flocks  upon  their  own 
hills,  and  to  the  voice  of  the  lark  that  cheers  them 
at  their  plows,  that  they  may  open  them  in  dust 
and  smoke  and  steam  to  the  perpetual  whirl  of 
spools  and  spindles,  and  the  grating  of  rasps  and 
saws. 

"It  is  the  true  policy  of  government  to  suffer 
the  different  pursuits  of  society  to  take  their  own 
course,  and  not  to  give  excessive  bounties  or  en- 
couragements to  one  over  another.  This  also  is  the 
true  spirit  of  the  Constitution.  It  has  not,  in  my 
opinion,  conferred  on  the  government  this  power 
of  changing  the  occupations  of  the  people.' ' 

Opposition  to  the  policy  of  the  administration 
was  Webster's  guiding  principle.  Neither  at  this 
nor  during  the  next  session  of  Congress  did  he 
introduce  any  bill  or  support  any  measure  of  real 
importance  to  his  countrymen.  He  was  simply  a 
Federalist,  bound  to  embarrass  the  President  at 
every  turn,  though  the  enemy's  fleets  were  block- 
ading the  ports  and  the  enemy's  troops  were  actu- 
ally in  possession  of  a  portion  of  the  soil  of  his 
country.  How  far  he  was  willing  to  carry  this 
resistance  is  well  set  forth  by  his  vote  against  the 
tax  bill  at  the  following  session. 

The  government  was  then  hard  put.     During 


88  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

the  summer  of  1814  a  British  fleet  had  come  up 
the  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  a  force  of  the  enemy  had 
marched  inland  and  burned  the  Capitol,  the  "pal- 
ace, ' '  and  some  public  buildings.  The  State  banks 
outside  of  New  England  had  suspended  specie  pay- 
ment, and  the  federal  treasury,  unable  to  use  its 
funds,  was  on  the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  All  Maine 
east  of  the  Penobscot  River  was  in  British  hands, 
and  had  been  formally  declared  British  territory; 
and  it  was  well  known  that  an  expedition  against 
New  Orleans  was  under  way. 

In  our  day  the  man  who,  in  such  a  crisis,  think- 
ing only  of  his  party,  should  forget  his  country 
and  seek  to  withhold  the  means  needed  to  rescue 
it  from  the  dangers  that  pressed  on  every  side, 
would  merit  and  receive  the  execrations  of  all 
right-minded  persons.  It  was  not  so,  however,  in 
the  time  of  Madison,  and  when  the  Republicans 
asked  for  a  national  bank,  a  conscript  law,  and 
more  taxes,  the  Federalists  had  nothing  but  ridi- 
cule and  opposition  to  offer.  To  a  bank,  if  re- 
quired to  redeem  its  notes  at  all  times  in  specie, 
Webster  had  no  objection;  but  he  gave  his  vote 
against  every  form  of  bank  the  Republicans  sub- 
mitted, ' '  had  a  hand, ' '  as  he  expressed  it,  ' '  in  over- 
throwing Mr.  Monroe's  conscription,"  and  voted 
against  the  taxes. 

As  yet  no  really  patriotic  sentiment  seems  to 
animate  him.  No  word  of  encouragement  escapes 
his  lips.    He  will  support  the  war  if  fought  on  the 


CONGRESSMAN  89 

ocean;  lie  will  express  his  opinion  on  the  conduct 
of  the  war  as  freely  and  boldly  as  he  pleases ;  but 
he  will  not  do  anything  which  can  be  twisted  into 
approval  or  support  of  the  administration.  Nor 
do  his  letters  during  this  period  show  any  opinion 
of  his  own  as  to  the  true  public  policy.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  is  rather  pleased  as  the  difficulties 
become  greater.  "Poor  Madison  does  not  know 
what  to  do ' ' ;  "  Never  was  more  sinking  fortune ' ' ; 
"Poor  Madison,  I  doubt  whether  he  has  had  a 
night's  sleep  these  three  weeks";  "The  taxes  go 
heavily;  I  fear  they  will  not  go  at  all.  They  are  in 
a  great  pickle.  Who  cares !"  are  the  sort  of  ex- 
pressions with  which  his  correspondence  abounds. 
Webster  had  now  finished  his  first  term  as  a 
member  of  the  House,  and  was  easily  reelected  to  a 
second.  But  the  place  seems  to  have  lost  its  charm. 
The  pay  was  small,  the  duties  were  great,  while 
his  need  of  a  larger  income  and  time  to  earn  it  was 
imperative.  "You  must  contrive  some  way  for 
me  to  get  rich  as  soon  as  there  is  peace,"  he  writes. 
The  great  fire  at  Portsmouth  in  December,  1813, 
which  burned  two  hundred  and  forty  buildings  and 
laid  bare  a  tract  fifteen  acres  in  extent,  had  de- 
stroyed his  house  and  library,  and  inflicted  a  loss 
of  some  six  thousand  dollars.  The  savings  of  years 
were  swept  away  and  must  be  made  good  again. 
To  attempt  this  in  Portsmouth,  where,  at  most, 
only  a  couple  of  thousands  could  be  gathered  each 
year,  when  the  same  industry  applied  elsewhere 


90  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

would  yield  richer  returns,  seemed  unwise.  But 
where  should  the  new  hazard  be  made?  Many  in- 
ducements drew  him  to  Boston,  and  as  the  session 
of  1815-16  wore  away,  he  began  to  think  of  aban- 
doning New  England  and  settling  in  Albany  or 
New  York,  and  in  March  wrote  to  Ezekiel :  "I  have 
settled  my  purpose  to  remove  from  New  Hamp- 
shire in  the  course  of  the  summer.  I  have  thought 
of  Boston,  New  York,  and  Albany.  On  the  whole, 
I  shall  probably  go  to  Boston,  although  I  am  not 
without  some  inducement  to  go  into  the  State  of 
New  York.  Our  New  England  prosperity  and  im- 
portance are  passing  away.  This  is  fact.  The 
events  of  the  times,  the  policy  of  England,  the  con- 
sequences of  our  war,  and  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  have 
bereft  us  of  our  commerce,  the  great  source  of  our 
wealth.  If  any  great  scenes  are  to  be  acted  in  this 
country  within  the  next  twenty  years,  New  York 
is  the  place  in  which  those  scenes  are  to  be  viewed. ' ' 

Yet,  in  spite  of  the  fair  prospects  of  New  York, 
he  chose  Boston,  moved  thither  in  the  summer  of 
1816,  and  thenceforth  remained  a  citizen  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Removal  to  Boston  cost  him  his  seat  in 
Congress.  But  it  mattered  little,  as  he  could  not, 
in  all  probability,  have  been  reelected,  for,  in  com- 
mon with  eighty  other  congressmen,  he  had  voted 
for  the  compensation  bill. 

Since  the  establishment  of  government  under  the 
Constitution  the  pay  of  congressmen  had  been  six 


jJ^jiagtifl®  in 

lit  |li 


WEBSTER'S    CHAIR 
AND   STICK. 


CONGBESSMAN  93 

dollars  for  each  day  they  attended,  and  mileage 
from  and  to  their  homes.  But,  in  the  course  of  a 
quarter-century,  salaries  had  gone  up,  the  cost  of 
living  had  greatly  increased,  and  members  who 
had  not  other  sources  of  income  found  it  impos- 
sible to  live  as  they  wished  on  what  had  become 
low  wages.  With  many  misgivings  and  explana- 
tions, the  daily  allowance  was  therefore  changed 
to  a  salary  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year.  Some 
grumbling  and  fault-finding  was  expected.  But 
when  constituents,  grand  juries,  legislatures,  pub- 
lic meetings,  and  the  press  from  Maine  to  Louisi- 
ana joined  in  one  universal  denunciation  of  every 
man  who  voted  aye,  the  situation  became  serious. 
Nine  members  of  the  House  during  the  summer  of 
1816  resigned  in  disgust,  and  refused  to  serve  out 
their  terms.  Scores  of  others  were  not  renomi- 
nated, and  in  the  autumn  elections  State  after  State 
changed  its  representation  completely,  or  sent  back 
such  members  only  as  had  opposed  the  law.  Not 
one  of  the  old  members  was  returned  from  Ohio, 
Delaware,  and  Vermont.  Half  the  New  Hampshire 
delegation  was  retired;  all  but  one  of  the  Geor- 
gians; five  out  of  nine  Marylanders;  ten  out  of 
twenty-three  Pennsylvanians ;  six  out  of  nine 
South-Carolinians.  Five  out  of  seven  members 
from  Connecticut  were  not  even  renominated. 
That  the  people  should  grow  angry  over  a  matter 
so  clearly  for  the  public  good,  yet  remain  heedless 
of  others  that  injured  them  much,  disgusted  Web- 


94  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

ster,  and  brought  on  one  of  the  fits  of  political 
hopelessness  from  which  he  often  suffered. 

' '  We  are  doing  nothing  now, ' '  he  wrote  in  Janu- 
ary, 1817,  i '  but  to  quarrel  with  one  of  our  laws  of 
last  session,  called  the  horse  law,  its  object  being 
to  pay  the  Kentucky  men  for  all  the  horses  which 
died  in  that  country  during  the  war.  So  far  very 
well;  but  there  was  a  clause  put  in  to  pay  for  all 
houses  and  buildings  burned  by  the  enemy  on  ac- 
count of  having  been  a  military  depot.    This  played 

the  very  d .    All  the  Niagara  frontier,  the  city 

of  Washington,  etc.,  wherever  the  enemy  destroyed 
anything,  was  proved  to  have  been  a  military  de- 
pot :  one  tavern,  twenty-seven  thousand  dollars,  be- 
cause some  officers  or  soldiers  lodged  in  the  house 
a  day  or  two  before  the  burning;  one  great  rope- 
walk,  because  a  rope  had  been  sent  there  to  be 
mended  for  the  navy-yard;  etc. 

'  *  We  then  have  the  compensation  [bill]  to  repeal, 
which  I  trust  will  not  take  us  long.  Then  comes 
from  the  Senate  the  ' conscription  law,'  as  you 
justly  call  it.  What  inducement  has  one  to  resist 
this  or  anything  else  1  Two  years  ago,  with  infinite 
pains  and  labor,  we  defeated  Mr.  Monroe's  con- 
scription. Nobody  thanked  us  for  it.  Last  win- 
ter our  friends  in  the  Senate  got  this  militia  bill 
thrown  out ;  nobody  knew  or  cared  anything  about 
it.  For  two  or  three  years  Massachusetts  has  been 
paying  from  ten  to  twenty-five  per  cent,  more  duties 
on  importations  than  Pennsylvania  or  Maryland. 


CONGRESSMAN  95 

At  the  close  of  last  session  we  tried  to  do  some- 
thing for  her  relief;  but  her  federal  legislature 
takes  no  notice  of  the  abominable  injustice  done 
her,  or  the  plain  violations  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws  which  have  taken  place  to  her  great  injury. 
All  are  silent  and  quiet.  But  when  her  federal 
members,  who  come  here  to  be  kicked  and  stoned 
and  abused  in  her  behalf,  think  proper  to  raise 
their  compensation  so  that  it  will  defray  their  ex- 
penses, she  denounces  them  man  by  man  without 
an  exception.  No  respect  for  talents,  services, 
character,  or  feelings  restrains  her  from  joining 
with  the  lowest  democracy  in  its  loudest  cry." 


CHAPTER   V 

A   CONGRESSMAN    FROM    MASSACHUSETTS 

THE  next  five  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  the 
practice  of  law  in  the  courts  of  Massachusetts 
and  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
The  times  were  bad.  Never  had  the  country  known 
a  period  of  such  severe  and  wide-spread  business 
depression.  Years  afterward,  men  who  remem- 
bered those  days  still  spoke  of  them  as  the  "hard 
times  of  eighteen  hundred  and  starve  to  death." 
Yet,  in  spite  of  this,  the  account-books  of  Webster 
show  that  during  the  worst  year  of  all  he  received 
fifteen  thousand  dollars  in  fees.  But  the  gain  in 
fame  was  greater  than  in  money,  for  then  was  it 
that  he  won  the  Dartmouth  College  case,  delivered 
the  great  speech  at  Plymouth,  and  achieved  dis- 
tinction in  the  convention  called  to  amend  the 
Constitution  of  Massachusetts.  * '  Our  friend  Web- 
ster," said  Judge  Story,  "has  gained  a  noble  repu- 
tation. It  was  a  glorious  field  for  him,  and  he  had 
an  ample  harvest.  The  whole  force  of  his  great 
mind  was  brought  out,  and  in  several  speeches  he 
commanded  universal  admiration. ' '  It  was  indeed 
a  glorious  field  for  him.     For  twenty  years  he 

96 


CONGRESSMAN  97 

had  been  studying  what  he  well  called  ' '  the  nature 
and  constitution  of  society  and  government  in 
this  country/'  and  now,  for  the  first  time,  found 
an  occasion  to  state  his  opinions  at  length.  The 
speech  on  the  judiciary,  that  on  religion  as  a  quali- 
fication for  office-holding,  and,  above  all,  that  on 
property  as  the  basis  of  representation  in  the  Sen- 
ate, were  much  admired,  and  carried  conviction 
to  his  listeners.  Of  this  last  he  was  not  a  little 
proud,  and  five  days  after  the  delivery  of  it  in  the 
convention  he  repeated  it,  word  for  word,  to  the 
crowd  that  gathered  in  the  little  church  at  Ply- 
mouth, as  part  of  the  oration  on  "The  First  Set- 
tlement of  New  England.' ' 

With  each  increase  of  fame  as  a  lawyer  and  an 
orator,  friends  and  admirers  grew  more  and  more 
urgent  that  he  should  once  more  return  to  public 
life.  He  did,  indeed,  consent  to  serve  as  a  Presi- 
dential elector,  and  for  ten  days  sat  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts legislature.  Many  years  afterward,  in  the 
course  of  a  speech,  Webster  referred  to  this  service, 
and  told  his  hearers  a  story  quite  characteristic  of 
the  man.  "It  so  happens,"  said  he,  "that  all  the 
public  services  which  I  have  rendered  in  this  world, 
in  my  day  and  generation,  have  been  connected 
with  the  general  government.  I  think  I  ought  to 
make  one  exception.  I  was  ten  days  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  legislature,  and  I  turned  my 
thoughts  to  the  search  for  some  good  object  in 
which  I  could  be  useful  in  that  position ;  and,  after 


98  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

much  reflection,  I  introduced  a  bill  which,  with  the 
general  consent  of  both  houses  of  the  Massachu- 
setts legislature,  passed  into  a  law,  and  is  now  a 
law  of  the  State,  which  enacts  that  no  man  in  the 
State  shall  catch  trout  in  any  other  manner  than 
in  the  old  way,  with  an  ordinary  hook  and  line." 
To  keep  aloof  from  public  life,  however,  was 
not  possible.  To  the  end  of  his  life  Webster  was, 
above  all  else,  a  student  and  an  expounder  of  con- 
stitutional government,  and  the  period  we  have  now 
reached  was  one  in  which  those  principles  were 
everywhere  discussed.  In  the  Supreme  Court, 
Marshall  was  handing  down  one  by  one  decisions 
upholding  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court,  defining 
the  powers  of  Congress,  limiting  the  powers  of  the 
States,  and  completely  changing  the  popular  un- 
derstanding of  the  place  of  the  judiciary  in  our 
system  of  government.  All  about  him  new  State 
constitutions  were  being  made  and  old  ones 
mended.  Within  the  brief  period  of  five  years,  In- 
diana, Illinois,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Connecticut, 
Maine,  and  Missouri  had  each  framed  a  new  in- 
strument of  government,  and  New  York,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Maryland  had  greatly  changed  their 
early  forms.  The  extension  of  the  franchise,  the 
basis  of  representation,  the  qualifications  for  of- 
fice-holding, were  everywhere  discussed.  Eco- 
nomic and  industrial  issues  had  come  to  the  front 
and  were  pressing  for  settlement.  The  right  of 
Congress  to  protect  manufactures,  to  charter  a  na- 


CONGEESSMAN  99 

tional  bank,  to  build  roads  and  canals,  to  prohibit 
slavery  in  a  new  State,  were  topics  to  which  Web- 
ster could  not  be  indifferent. 

A  great  opportunity  now  lay  before  him,  and 
when,  one  day  in  August,  1822,  a  committee  from  a 
meeting  of  delegates  from  all  the  wards  of  Boston 
invited  him  to  represent  the  district  of  Suffolk  in 
Congress,  he  consented,  and  in  December,  1823, 
was  again  a  member  of  the  House. 

The  spirit  in  which  he  entered  on  the  new  service 
is  finely  set  forth  in  a  letter  to  Judge  Story,  writ- 
ten in  May,  1823 :  "  I  never  felt  more  down  sick  on 
all  subjects  connected  with  the  public  than  at  the 
present  moment.  I  have  heretofore  cherished  a 
faint  hope  that  New  England  would  some  time  or 
other  get  out  of  this  miserable,  dirty  squabble  of 
local  politics,  and  assert  her  proper  character  and 
consequence.  But  I  at  length  give  up.  I  feel  the 
hand  of  fate  upon  us,  and  to  struggle  is  in  vain. 
We  are  doomed  to  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers 
of  water,  and  I  am  prepared  henceforth  to  do  my 
part  of  the  drudgery  without  hoping  for  an  end. 
What  has  sickened  me  beyond  remedy  is  the  tone 
and  temper  of  these  disputes.  We  are  disgraced 
beyond  help  or  hope  by  these  things.  There  is  a 
Federal  interest,  a  Democratic  interest,  a  bankrupt 
interest,  an  orthodox  interest,  and  a  middling  in- 
terest; but  I  see  no  national  interest,  nor  any  na- 
tional feeling  in  the  whole  matter.' ' 

Happily,  he  was  not  prepared  to  do  his  part  of 


100  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

the  drudgery  without  hoping  for  an  end.  So  far 
as  he  was  concerned,  the  end  had  come.  The 
"miserable  squabble  of  local  politics,"  which  so 
strongly  affected  his  conduct  during  his  first  term 
of  service  in  the  House,  was  to  influence  him  no 
more.  At  last  he  had  risen  to  the  plane  of  states- 
manship, and  was  to  see  the  coming  issues  in  their 
bearings  on  the  nation. 

As  the  autumn  wore  away,  and  the  time  drew 
near  when  Congress  was  to  meet,  he  began,  in  his 
usual  way,  to  turn  over  in  his  mind  what  he  should 
do.  As  a  student  of  constitutional  government 
and  a  lover  of  liberty,  the  unhappy  failure  of  the 
republican  movement  in  South  America,  the  sud- 
den rise  of  liberalism  in  Europe,  the  stamping 
out  of  every  trace  of  democracy  by  the  Holy  Al- 
lies at  Naples  and  in  Spain,  and  the  glorious  strug- 
gle of  the  Greeks  for  independence,  interested  him 
deeply.  The  cause  of  the  Greeks,  and  their  ap- 
peal to  the  one  real  republic  of  the  world,  touched 
him. 

"If  nobody  does  it  who  can  do  it  better,"  he 
wrote  in  November  to  his  friend  Everett,  "I  shall 
certainly  say  something  of  the  Greeks.  The  mis- 
erable issue  of  the  Spanish  revolution  makes  the 
Greek  cause  more  interesting,  and  I  begin  to  think 
they  have  character  enough  to  carry  them  through 
the  contest  with  success."  This  purpose  grew 
stronger  the  more  he  thought  it  over,  and  when, 
on  reaching  New  York,  he  took  up  the  October 


CONGRESSMAN  101 

number  of  the  ' '  North  American  Review ' '  and  read 
Mr.  Everett's  article  on  the  Greeks,  he  firmly  re- 
solved to  help  them.  i '  I  have  found  leisure  here, ' ' 
he  wrote,  "and  not  till  now,  to  read  your  admir- 
able article  on  the  Greeks.  Since  I  left  Boston, 
also,  we  have  had  important  information  from 
them.  I  feel  a  great  inclination  to  say  or  do  some- 
thing in  their  behalf  early  in  the  session,  if  I  know 
what  to  say  or  to  do.  If  you  can  readily  direct  me 
to  any  source  from  which  I  can  obtain  more  infor- 
mation than  is  already  public  respecting  these  af- 
fairs, I  would  be  obliged  to  you  to  do  so." 

Mr.  Everett  having  responded  in  the  most  hand- 
some manner,  sent  him  manuscripts  and  bits  of 
information,  and  posted  him  in  all  the  details  of 
the  war,  Webster  wrote  to  him:  "I  have  gone 
over  your  two  manuscripts  with  the  map  before 
me,  and  think  I  have  mastered  the  campaigns  of 
1821-22  historically  and  topographically.  My 
wonder  is,  where  and  how  your  most  extraordi- 
nary industry  has  been  able  to  find  all  the  mate- 
rials for  so  interesting  and  detailed  a  narrative. 
I  hope  you  will  send  me  a  digested  narrative  of 
the  events  of  this  year  so  far  as  they  are  to  be 
learned  from  the  last  accounts. 

' '  I  have  spoken  to  several  gentlemen  on  the  sub- 
ject of  a  motion  respecting  Greece,  and  all  of  them 
approve  it.  The  object  which  I  wish  to  bring 
about,  and  which  I  believe  may  be  brought  about, 
is  the  appointment  of  a  commissioner  to  go  to 


102  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

Greece.  Two  modes  present  themselves.  A  mo- 
tion to  that  effect  and  a  speech  in  support  of  it, 
giving  some  account  of  the  rise  and  progress  of 
the  Greek  revolution,  and  showing  the  propriety 
and  utility  of  the  proposed  mission.  The  other 
is  to  raise  a  committee  on  the  subject  and  let  there 
be  a  report  containing  the  same  matter.  Which- 
ever may  be  adopted,  your  communications  are 
invaluable,  and  I  wish  you  would  tell  me  frankly 
how  far  I  can  use  them  without  injury  to  your 
January  article  in  the  '  North  American. '  W"e  can 
wait  until  that  article  is  out,  if  you  think  best,  but 
my  impression  is,  we  should  do  well  to  bring  for- 
ward the  subject  within  ten  or  twelve  days  from 
this  time,  while  the  House  is  not  yet  much  occu- 
pied, and  while  the  country  feels  the  warmth  com- 
municated by  the  President's  message.  I  intend 
to  see,  in  the  course  of  this  day  and  to-morrow,  Mr. 
R.  King,  Mr.  Clay,  and  perhaps  the  President,  and 
have  their  views  on  this  matter.' ' 

But  Monroe,  in  his  message,  had  announced  the 
famous  doctrine  that  still  bears  his  name,  and 
was  little  inclined  to  meddle  with  affairs  in  Greece. 
"There  was,  I  believe,''  Webster  continues,  "a 
meeting  of  the  members  of  the  administration  yes- 
terday, at  which,  inter  alia,  they  talked  of  Greece. 
The  pinch  is  that  in  the  message  the  President  has 
taken  pretty  high  ground  as  to  this  continent,  and 
is  afraid  of  the  appearance  of  interfering  in  the 
concerns  of  the  other  continent  also.     This  does 


CONGRESSMAN  103 

not  weigli  greatly  with  me ;  I  think  we  have  as 
much  community  with  the  Greeks  as  with  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Andes  and  the  dwellers  on  the 
borders  of  the  Vermilion  Sea.  If  nothing  should 
occur  to  alter  my  present  purpose,  I  shall  bring 
forward  a  motion  on  the  subject  on  Monday,  and 
shall  propose  to  let  it  lie  on  the  table  for  a  fort- 
night. ' ' 

On  the  day  chosen  Webster  accordingly  moved 
that  provision  ought  to  be  made  to  defray  the  ex- 
pense of  sending  an  agent  or  commissioner  to 
Greece  whenever  the  President  should  deem  it  ex- 
pedient to  make  an  appointment.  For  six  weeks 
the  resolution  lay  on  the  table.  During  this  time 
Webster  was  busy  with  his  speech.  "I  believe, " 
he  wrote,  "  there  will  be  a  good  deal  of  discussion, 
although,  if  any,  pretty  much  on  one  side.  While 
some  of  our  Boston  friends,  as  I  know,  think  this 
resolution  even  quixotic,  leading  to  a  crusade,  it 
will  be  objected  to  strongly  by  many  on  account 
of  its  tame  milk-and-water  character.  The  mer- 
chants are  naturally  enough  a  little  afraid  about 
their  cargoes  at  Smyrna ;  besides,  Greece  is  a  great 
way  off,  etc. 

"My  intention  is  to  justify  the  resolution  against 
two  classes  of  objectors,  those  that  suppose  it  not 
to  go  far  enough,  and  those  that  suppose  it  to  go 
too  far;  then,  to  give  some  little  history  of  the 
Greek  revolution,  express  a  pretty  strong  convic- 
tion  of   its   ultimate   success,    and   persuade   the 


104  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

House,  if  I  can,  to  take  the  merit  of  being  the  first 
government  among  all  civilized  nations  who  have 
publicly  rejoiced  in  the  emancipation  of  Greece. 
I  feel  now  that  I  could  make  a  pretty  good  speech 
for  my  friends  the  Greeks,  but  I  shall  get  cool  in 
fourteen  days,  unless  you  keep  up  my  tempera- 
ture. ' ' 

The  intent  and  purpose  of  the  speech,  however, 
were  not  understood.  It  was  believed  that  Web- 
ster had  seized  on  the  topic  because  it  was  upper- 
most in  the  public  mind,  because  of  the  feeling 
and  wide- spread  interest  it  had  awakened,  and 
because  it  would  enable  him  to  mark  his  return  to 
Congress  by  an  oration  finer  than  that  delivered 
in  the  old  First  Church  at  Plymouth.  When, 
therefore,  he  rose  to  speak,  on  the  day  appointed 
to  consider  his  resolution,  and  looked  over  the  sea 
of  eager  faces  drawn  to  the  House  by  the  expec- 
tation of  a  display  of  oratory,  he  felt  in  duty  bound 
to  say  that  "he  was  afraid  that,  so  far  as  he  was 
concerned,  the  excited  expectations  of  the  public 
mind,  on  the  present  occasion,  would  be  disap- 
pointed. "  But  the  public  mind  suffered  no  dis- 
appointment. ' '  The  report  of  your  speech, ' '  wrote 
Joseph  Hopkinson,  "meager  as  it  is,  shows  the 
foot  of  Hercules ;  but  we  want  the  whole  body,  and 
trust  you  will  give  it  to  us.  Mr.  Hemphill  wrote 
me  it  was  the  best  he  ever  heard.' ' 

While  the  House  admired  the  oratory,  it  would 
not  be  persuaded  by  the  argument.    Member  after 


CONGRESSMAN  107 

member  spoke  in  opposition.  Some  thought  the 
resolution  little  better  than  a  declaration  of  war. 
Others  feared  it  would  lead  to  war.  Still  others 
felt  so  sure  that  the  Holy  Allies  would  soon  attack 
the  South  American  republics,  and  we  be  called 
on  to  make  good  the  stand  taken  by  the  President 
in  his  message,  that  they  shrank  from  "mingling 
in  the  turmoils  of  Europe"  when  we  might  our- 
selves, in  a  little  while,  be  struggling  for  the  pres- 
ervation of  our  own  liberties.  After  a  week  of 
debating  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  rose  with- 
out asking  leave  to  sit  again,  and  for  a  second  time 
a  resolution  offered  by  Webster  never  reached  a 
vote.  ' '  The  motion, ' '  he  wrote  Mr.  Mason,  ' '  ought 
to  have  been  adopted,  and  would  have  been  by  a 
general  vote  but  for  certain  reasons,  which  the 
public  will  never  know,  and  which  I  will  not  trou- 
ble you  with  now.  I  could  divide  the  House  very 
evenly  on  the  subject  now,  and  perhaps  carry  a 
vote.  Whether  I  shall  stir  it  again  must  be  con- 
sidered. Mr.  Adams'  opposition  to  it  was  the  most 
formidable  obstacle."  A  few  years  later,  when  a 
writer  in  the  "Philadelphia  Quarterly' '  reviewed 
a  volume  of  his  collected  speeches,  Webster  wrote 
to  the  reviewer  and  said:  "One  word  about  the 
Greek  speech.  I  think  I  am  more  fond  of  this 
child  than  of  any  of  the  family.  My  object,  when 
the  resolution  was  introduced,  was  not  understood. 
It  was  imagined  that,  seeing  the  existence  of  a 
warm  public  sympathy  for  the  suffering  Greeks, 
the  purpose  was  only  to  make  a  speech  responsive 


108  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

and  gratifying  to  that  sympathy.  The  real  object 
was  larger.  It  was  to  take  occasion  of  the  Greek 
revolution,  and  the  conduct  held  in  regard  to  it 
by  the  great  Continental  Powers,  to  exhibit  the 
principles  laid  down  by  those  powers  as  the  basis 
on  which  they  meant  to  maintain  the  peace  of 
Europe.  This  purpose  made  it  necessary  to  ex- 
amine accurately  the  proceedings  of  all  the  Con- 
gresses from  that  of  Paris  in  1814  to  that  of  Lay- 
bach  in  1821.  I  read  those  proceedings  with  a 
good  deal  of  attention,  and  endeavored  to  extract 
the  principle  on  which  they  were  founded.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  book  which  I  think  so  well  of 
as  parts  of  this  speech.  Events  have  shown  that 
some  opinions  here  expressed  were  well  founded. 
A  revolution  has  taken  place,  and  the  people  re- 
form their  constitution  and  then  invite  an  indi- 
vidual to  the  throne  on  condition  of  governing  ac- 
cording to  the  constitution.  Belgium  is  doing  the 
same ;  Poland  is  attempting  to  do  the  same.  This 
is  the  spirit  of  the  English  Revolution  of  1688,  but 
it  is  flat  burglary  according  to  the  law  of  Laybach. 
"I  was  something  of  a  prophet,  too,  in  regard 
to  the  duration  of  the  French  monarchy.  See  Ply- 
mouth Discourse.  But  enough ;  I  am  tired  of  say- 
ing %'  'me,'  'mine.'  My  dear  sir,  if  the  world 
cannot  see  the  merit  of  my  illustrious  works,  why 
should  I  (or  why  should  you)  trouble  ourselves 
to  point  them  out!"  1 

1  Curtis's  Life  of  Webster. 


CONGRESSMAN  109 

The  speech  was  indeed  a  great  one,  was  always 
held  by  Webster  to  be  his  best,  and  was  prepared 
with  much  pains  and  labor.  His  rough  notes,  still 
preserved  in  the  New  Hampshire  Historical  So- 
ciety at  Concord,  cover  eighteen  large  sheets  writ- 
ten on  both  sides.  The  interest  which  attaches  to  it 
is,  therefore,  of  no  common  sort,  and  may  justify 
the  copying  of  a  couple  of  pages  of  the  notes,  as  a 
good  illustration  of  a  method  of  work  from  which 
to  his  dying  day  he  never  departed. 

Introduction.  Memories  of  An.  Greece.  But  Mod.  Gr. 
one  subject. 

No  Quixotic  Emination.  An  American  question, 
on  large  scale. 

What  is  the  nation  ?  A  reciprocation  of  message.  No 
speeches  &  answers  now. 

If  adopted  it  leaves  everything  to  the  President's  un- 
restrained discretion.     .     .     . 

If  the  message  be  proper,  this  is  not  improper.  Mes- 
sage, 18  page. 

Our  Policy. 

1.  Pacific  growth,  not  acquisition.  Time,  peace  &  the 
arts,  are  our  agents  of  greatness.  No  scheme  so  magnifi- 
cent, as  what  our  condition  promises. 

2.  It  is  a  liberal  policy,  not  propagandists,  but  our  side 
is  known. 

Age  extraordinary;  our  situation  peculiar;  the  best 
period  &  the  best  spot ;  our  progress  rapid,  we  must  tax 
ourselves  to  keep  up  with  it. 

The  great  question  is  between  absolute  Govts.— and 
Regulated  Govts. 

Whether  Soc.  shall  have  a  part  in  its  own  Govt.  It 
is  not  content  with  kind  masters. 


110  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

The  spirit  of  the  age  sets  strongly  in  favor  of  free 
Govts. 

This  system  is  opposed  in  system  by  the  Great  Con- 
tinent'1  Powers.  It  is  opposed  wherever  it  shows  itself, 
Naples,  Piedmont,  Spain  and  Greece.  It  is  opposed  for 
reasons  rendering  opposition  to  it  as  proper  in  this  Coun- 
try, as  in  Europe.    It  is  opposed  on  settled  principles. 

The  question  is,  what  opinions  does  it  become  this 
Country  to  express. 

But  let  us  examine  the  truth  of  this.    Representation. 

There  is  the  Holy  Alliance. 

P.  D.  32.  355  page       Holy  Alliance,  an  extraordinary 
Sep.  1815.  &  unnecessary  League— Puff erdorf 

—read  abstract.     Originated  with 
Alex  'n.— Shown  in  or'g'l  drft.  to 
L'd.    Castlereagh,    before    it    was 
shown    to    the    other    sovereigns. 
(L'd.  C's.  Speech,  in  P.  D.) 
But  allowing  a  favorable  construction  to  this,  the  Al- 
liance has  proceeded  to  Practical  Resolutions,  of  dan- 
gerous import. 

1.  All  Constitutional  rights  proceed  from  the  grants 
of  Kings— Intimated  at  the  Federation— Charter. 

The  speech  in  behalf  of  the  Greeks  delivered 
and  his  resolution  "laid  in  the  tomb/'  Webster 
took  but  little  active  interest  in  public  affairs,  and 
turned  his  attention  to  private  matters  and  to  the 
duties  that  fell  to  his  committees.  Creditors  under 
the  Spanish  treaty  of  1819  had  long  been  clamor- 
ing for  their  money,  and  a  number  of  them  had 
retained  Webster  to  push  their  claims.    The  pas- 


CONGRESSMAN  111 

sage  of  a  bill  to  discharge  these  debts  was  with 
him,  as  he  says,  "the  great  business  of  the  ses- 
sion. ' ' 

Such  concerns  as  formed  the  daily  business  of 
the  House  did  not  interest  him  in  the  least,  and 
he  quickly  fell  into  the  habit  of  being  present  in 
body,  but  absent  in  mind.  In  a  speech  on  the  com- 
pensation bill  of  1816  he  had  denounced  this  prac- 
tice in  strong  terms.  " There  is,"  he  said,  "some- 
thing radically  defective  in  our  system  of  govern- 
ment. No  legislature  in  the  world,  however  vari- 
ous its  concerns  or  extensive  its  sphere,  sits  as 
long  as  this,  notwithstanding  that  its  sphere  is  so 
greatly  contracted  by  the  intervention  of  eighteen 
distinct  legislatures.  The  system  does  not  compel, 
on  the  part  of  its  members,  that  attention  which 
the  nature  of  the  public  business  requires.  I  refer 
to  letters  and  papers  on  the  desks  of  the  members 
every  day.  They  ought  to  have  none  of  them. 
When  a  man  comes  into  this  House,  he  ought  to 
leave  on  the  threshold  every  feeling  and  thought 
not  connected  with  the  public  service.  Private 
letters  and  private  conversation  ought  not  to  be 
permitted  to  encroach  on  the  unity  of  his  object. 
If  in  any  way  the  attention  of  the  House  could 
be  fixed  on  the  speaker,  there  would  be  an  end  to 
long  speeches,  for  I  defy  any  man  to  address  any 
assembly  of  this  sort,  and  address  them  long,  if 
their  attention  is  fixed  on  him.'' 

But  Webster  was  older  now;  evil  communica- 


112  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

tions  had  corrupted  his  good  manners,  and  he  had 
become  as  great  an  offender  as  the  worst,  and, 
shutting  his  ears  to  the  pleas  and  arguments  of 
many  a  debater,  would  spend  the  hours  writing 
letters.  To  the  splendid  opportunity  which  lay 
before  one  endowed  with  the  qualities  which  make 
men  leaders  of  their  kind,  he  seems  to  have  been 
blind.  Never  since  the  days  of  the  War  for  Inde- 
pendence was  a  statesman  of  the  constructive  type 
more  needed.  The  old  parties  founded  and  led  by 
Washington  and  Jefferson  were  gone,  and  new 
ones  to  take  their  places  were  yet  to  be  created. 
Of  the  issues  then  before  the  people  all  were  sec- 
tional; none  was  national.  That  they  would  some 
day  be  united  and  become  the  basis  of  parties  yet 
to  be  organized,  and  that  the  men  who  brought 
about  this  union  of  local  interests  would,  for  years 
to  come,  direct  the  policy  and  "sway  the  destiny 
of  the  country, ' '  was  inevitable. 

For  work  of  this  kind  Webster  was  in  no  sense 
fitted.  The  abilities  with  which  nature  had  so 
richly  endowed  him,  his  tastes,  his  studies,  and 
his  training  pointed  to  no  such  career;  and  in  the 
long  run  he  was  thrust  aside  and  outrun  by  men 
of  far  less  capacity,  by  demagogues  who  served 
the  times,  and,  dying,  left  behind  them  no  lasting 
work  as  the  fruit  of  a  long  life  spent  in  the  public 
service.  In  the  struggle  for  leadership  which  made 
memorable  the  next  four  years  he  was  a  mere 
looker-on,  commenting  now  and  then  on  the  would- 


CONGRESSMAN  113 

be  Presidents  and  their  chances  of  success.  At 
New  York,  when  on  his  way  to  attend  Congress, 
he  was  amazed  at  the  "sudden  and  extraordinary 
popularity  of  Mr.  Clinton."  New  Jersey,  he  was 
inclined  to  think,  would  support  Mr.  Calhoun.  At 
Washington  every  one  was  asking,  ' '  Will  a  caucus 
be  held?"  For  twenty  years  past  the  Republican 
members  of  the  House  and  Senate  used  to  meet 
some  February  evening  in  each  Presidential  year 
and  "recommend"  to  their  fellow-citizens,  as  they 
said,  two  men  to  be  President  and  Vice-President 
of  the  United  States.  The  "recommendation" 
was  often  followed  by  the  statement  that  the  men 
named  were  recommended  and  in  no  sense  nomi- 
nated; that  the  recommendation  was  made  in  the 
interest  of  party  unity  and  harmony  and  to  pre- 
vent the  wasteful  scattering  of  electoral  votes 
among  a  host  of  local  favorites,  not  one  of  whom 
had  the  smallest  chance  of  election.  So  long  as 
the  party  was  really  united  and  the  candidates 
chosen  were  men  whose  services  in  Revolutionary 
days  entitled  them  to  the  grateful  consideration  of 
their  countrymen,  all  went  well.  But  now  the 
party  was  not  united:  it  was  broken  into  many 
pieces,  and  as  each  fragment  had  rallied  about  a 
man  of  its  own  selection,  a  demand  arose  that  the 
old  method  of  nomination  by  the  caucus  should 
give  way  to  the  new  one  of  nomination  by  the 
people. 

Of  this  Webster  heartily  approved.     "It  ap- 


114  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

pears  to  me  to  be  our  true  policy,' '  he  wrote  to 
Mason,  "to  oppose  all  caucuses,  so  far  as  our 
course  seems  to  be  clear.  Beyond  this  I  do  not 
think  we  are  bound  to  proceed  at  present.  To  de- 
feat caucus  nominations,  or  prevent  them,  and  to 
give  the  election,  wherever  it  can  be  done,  to  the 
people,  are  the  best  means  of  restoring  the  body 
politic  to  its  natural  and  wholesome  state. ' '  "  One 
thing  I  hold  to  be  material,"  he  tells  his  brother: 
"get  on  without  a  caucus.  It  will  only  require  a 
little  more  pains.  It  is  time  to  put  an  end  to  cau- 
cuses. They  make  great  men  little  and  little  men 
great ;  the  true  source  of  power  is  the  people.  The 
Democrats  are  not  democratic  enough;  they  are 
real  aristocrats;  their  leaders  wish  to  govern  by 
a  combination  among  themselves,  and  they  think 
they  have  a  fee  simple  in  the  people's  suffrages. 
Go  to  the  people  and  convince  them  that  their  pre- 
tended friends  are  a  knot  of  self-interested  job- 
bers, who  make  a  trade  of  patriotism  and  live  on 
popular  credulity." 

When  at  last  the  caucus  is  held  and  Crawford 
and  Calhoun  are  nominated,  he  believes  it  "has 
hurt  nobody  but  its  friends.  Mr.  Adams's  chance 
seems  to  increase,  and  he  and  General  Jackson 
are  likely  to  be  the  real  competitors  at  last. 
General  Jackson's  manners  are  more  Presidential 
than  those  of  any  of  the  candidates.  He  is  grave, 
mild,  and  reserved.  My  wife  is  for  him  decid- 
edly."   A  month  later  he  is  still  convinced  that 


CONGRESSMAN  115 

Jackson  is  ' '  making  head  yet,  Arbuthnot  and  Am- 
brister  notwithstanding.  The  truth  is,  he  is  the 
people's  candidate  in  a  great  part  of  the  Southern 
and  Western  country.  I  hope  all  New  England 
will  support  Mr.  Calhoun  for  the  Vice-Presidency. 
If  so,  he  will  probably  be  chosen,  and  that  will  be 
a  great  thing.  He  is  a  true  man,  and  will  do  good 
to  the  country  in  that  situation.' ' 

By  the  time  the  caucus  was  held,  the  House  had 
settled  down  to  the  business  of  the  session,  and 
none  that  came  before  it  was  more  important  than 
the  tariff.  The  act  of  1816  had  not  produced  the 
many  benefits  so  hopefully  expected.  * '  This  meas- 
ure," said  the  high-tariff  advocates,  "was  believed 
at  the  time  to  be  all  that  was  needed;  but  the  im- 
mense accumulation  in  European  markets  of  goods 
made  by  labor-saving  machines  operated  by  men 
and  women  content  to  live  on  potatoes,  rice,  and 
water,  the  exclusion  of  these  goods  from  British 
markets  and  of  British  wares  from  European  mar- 
kets, forced  the  manufacturers  of  the  Old  World 
to  seek  our  ports,  where  they  have  been  only  too 
well  received.  Their  products,  cheaply  made  and 
evading  our  tariff  by  fraudulent  means,  have  been 
sold  at  the  auction-block  at  prices  which  distance 
competition,  and  have  been  paid  for  with  depre- 
ciated bank  paper,  which  the  foreign  owners  have 
exchanged  for  specie  and  carried  from  our  coun- 
try. This  means  the  ruin  of  our  banks,  our  manu- 
factures, our  farmers,  and  a  decline  in  the  value 


116  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

of  land;  for  now  that  hundreds  of  thousands  who 
consume  food,  liquor,  fuel,  and  clothing,  but  pro- 
duce them  not,  are  out  of  employment,  where  will 
our  farmers  find  a  sale  for  the  produce  that  they 
once  sold  readily  at  home!" 

The  hard  times  of  1819,  the  presence  in  the  cities 
of  great  numbers  of  idle  workmen,  the  activity  of 
the  Friends  of  National  Industry,  gave  uncommon 
force  to  such  arguments,  and  it  soon  became  im- 
possible for  a  dozen  men  to  gather  for  any  pur- 
pose without  issuing  an  appeal  for  a  new  tariff. 
Grand  juries  presented  the  sale  of  British  goods 
as  a  grievance.  Political  conventions  called  on 
voters  to  defeat  such  candidates  for  Congress  as 
would  not  promise  to  work  for  a  tariff.  Public 
meetings  discussed  the  need  of  protection,  and  as 
the  day  drew  near  when  Congress  must  meet,  pe- 
titions went  about  in  every  manufacturing  town 
and  village,  and  delegates  from  nine  States  assem- 
bled at  New  York.  Calling  themselves  a  conven- 
tion of  Friends  of  National  Industry,  they  urged 
the  formation  of  State  societies  to  agitate  for  a 
tariff  and  to  send  representatives  to  a  national 
convention  to  be  held  at  New  York  city  in  1820. 

Nor  were  the  enemies  of  a  high  tariff  for  pro- 
tection less  active.  They,  too,  held  meetings,  and 
it  was  at  one  of  these,  gathered  in  Faneuil  Hall,  in 
1820,  that  Webster  spoke  in  behalf  of  a  free-trade 
policy.  Both  sides  were  now  in  serious  earnest,  and 
during  four  years  the  issue  was  constantly  before 


CONGRESSMAN  117 

Congress.  The  bill  of  1820  was  defeated  by  the 
casting-vote  of  the  Vice-President;  that  of  1821 
was  not  put  upon  its  passage;  the  House  refused 
to  consider  that  of  1822 :  but  when  a  fourth  at- 
tempt was  made  in  1823,  the  Committee  on  Manu- 
factures laid  before  the  House  a  bill  which  the 
supporters  of  Webster  expected  him  to  resist. 
Personally  he  cared  little  for  it;  for  the  questions 
which  filled  his  thoughts,  occupied  his  hours  of 
study,  and  which,  to  the  last,  he  delighted  to  ex- 
pound, were  such  as  sprang  from  the  interpreta- 
tion of  our  Constitution,  our  principles  of  gov- 
ernment, and  not  such  as  were  concerned  with 
political  economy. 

"On  this  same  tariff  we  are  now  occupied/'  he 
writes;  "it  is  a  tedious,  disagreeable  subject.  The 
House,  or  a  majority  of  it,  are  apparently  insane; 
at  least  I  think  so.  Whether  anything  can  be  done 
to  moderate  the  disease,  I  know  not.  I  have  very 
little  hope.  I  am  aware  that  something  is  expected 
of  me ;  much  more  than  I  shall  perform.  It  would 
be  easy  to  make  a  speech,  but  I  am  anxious  to  do 
something  better,  if  I  can;  but  I  see  not  what  I 
can  do."  "The  tariff  is  yet  undecided.  It  will 
not  pass,  I  think,  in  its  present  shape,  and  I  doubt 
if  it  will  pass  at  all.  As  yet  I  have  not  interfered 
much  in  the  debate,  partly  because  there  were 
others  more  desirous  to  discuss  the  details  than  I 
am,  and  partly  because  I  have  been  so  much  in 
the  court.    I  have  done,  however,  with  the  court, 


118  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

and  the  whole  tariff  subject  is  yet  open.  I  shall 
be  looking  after  it,  though  I  should  prefer  it  should 
die  a  natural  death,  by  postponement  or  other  easy 
violence. ' ' 

No  such  death  awaited  the  bill,  and  when,  one 
day  in  April,  1824,  Clay  took  the  floor  and  deliv- 
ered that  famous  speech  in  which  he  outlined  and 
defended  his  "American  policy,' 9  Webster  knew 
that  the  time  had  come  to  reply.  Never  had  Clay 
spoken  more  earnestly,  more  eloquently,  or  at 
greater  length.  He  began  at  eleven  in  the  morn- 
ing and  was  still  on  his  feet  when  the  House  ad- 
journed at  half-past  three  in  the  afternoon. 

If  tradition  may  be  trusted,  Webster  went  home 
that  night  fully  determined  to  answer  Clay,  rose 
before  daylight  the  next  morning,  and  spent  the 
time  till  the  House  met  in  jotting  down  on  paper 
what  he  intended  to  say.  But  Clay,  resuming  the 
argument  where  he  left  it  off  the  day  before,  spoke 
for  several  hours,  and  was  then  followed  by  a 
member  from  Mississippi,  so  that  the  afternoon 
was  well  spent  when  Webster  began  his  reply,  and 
was  in  turn  forced  to  continue  it  on  the  following 
day.  Tradition  further  tells  us  that,  while  he  was 
then  in  the  full  swing  of  eloquence,  a  note  was 
thrust  into  his  hand,  informing  him  that  the  great 
case  of  Gibbons  against  Ogden  would  be  called 
for  argument  the  next  morning  in  the  Supreme 
Court;  that  he  ended  his  speech  as  speedily  as 
possible,  and  went  home,  and  to  bed,  and  to  sleep ; 


CONGRESSMAN  119 

that  he  rose  at  ten  that  night,  and,  with  no  other 
refreshment  than  a  bowl  of  tea,  toiled  steadily  till 
nine  the  next  morning,  when  his  brief  was  done; 
that  he  then  partook  of  a  slight  breakfast  of  tea 
and  crackers,  read  the  morning  newspapers,  went 
to  court,  and  there  made  that  argument  which  de- 
stroyed the  exclusive  right  to  navigate  the  waters 
of  New  York  by  steam,  so  long  enjoyed  by  Fulton 
and  Livingston,  and  "released  every  creek  and 
river,  every  lake  and  harbor,  in  our  country  from 
the  interference  of  monopolies. " 

Many  reasons  combine  to  make  the  tariff  de- 
bate of  1824  of  no  common  interest.  Neither 
speaker,  it  is  true,  settled  the  controversy.  More 
than  three  quarters  of  a  century  has  passed  since 
that  day,  yet  the  respective  merits  of  free  trade 
and  protection  are  as  far  as  ever  from  settlement, 
and  still  furnish  plentiful  material  for  campaigns 
of  education.  Nevertheless,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  principle  and  policy  of  protective  tariffs 
have  never  been  better  stated  than  in  the  brilliant 
speech  by  Clay,  nor  more  forcibly  combated  than 
they  were  in  the  vigorous  reasoning  of  Webster. 
Clay  made  the  better  speech;  Webster  the  better 
argument.  In  the  effort  of  Clay  are  plainly  visible 
all  the  characteristics  of  the  man,  both  great  and 
small:  his  fervid  patriotism,  his  glowing  diction, 
his  lively  imagination,  his  skill  in  grouping  facts, 
his  superficial  knowledge,  and  his  inability  to  rea- 
son calmly  to  a  logical  conclusion.    In  the  answer 


120  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

of  Webster  are  set  forth  the  keen  analysis,  the  de- 
liberate reasoning,  the  fall  knowledge,  the  mastery 
of  principles,  which  made  him  great.  Nowhere 
else  in  our  annals  can  be  found  two  speeches  of 
deeper  interest  to  the  student  of  economics. 

Of  the  speech  thus  hastily  prepared  and  hastily 
delivered,  Webster  had  but  a  poor  opinion.  "We 
have  heard  a  great  deal  of  nonsense  upon  the  sub- 
ject,' '  he  wrote  Mr.  Mason,  "and  some  of  it  from 
high  quarters.  I  think  you  will  be  surprised  at 
Mr.  Clay's  speech.  My  speech  will  be  printed, 
and  you  will  get  it.  Whatever  I  have  done  in  other 
cases,  I  must  say  that  in  this  I  have  published' it 
against  my  own  judgment.  I  was  not  expecting 
to  speak  at  that  time,  nor  ready  to  do  so.  And 
from  Mr.  Clay's  ending  I  had  but  one  night  to 
prepare.  The  ideas  are  right  enough,  I  hope,  but 
as  a  speech  it  is  clumsy,  wanting  in  method,  and 
tedious."  His  friends  thought  otherwise,  and  the 
mails  soon  began  to  bring  him  letters  full  of  adu- 
lation and  of  praise  for  the  Greek  and  tariff 
speeches.  "I  received  a  letter  from  a  friend  in 
London,"  says  one  correspondent,  "dated  the  6th 
of  March,  who  justly  observes:  'Mr.  Webster's 
speech  has  been  received  with  general  approbation 
and  applause.  It  has  been  translated  into  Greek 
and  printed  in  London,  in  order  to  be  distributed 
all  over  Greece.  I  am  happy  that  the  Demosthenes 
of  America  has  taken  the  lead  in  encouraging  and 
animating  the  countrymen  of  his  great  prototype.' 


CONGEESSMAN  121 

I  tender  my  thanks  for  your  lucid  and  magnificent 
speech  on  the  Tariff.  The  ground  you  have  as- 
sumed is  the  only  one  which  history,  policy,  and 
experience  can  enable  us  to  maintain  with  interest 
to  the  nation.  I  march  with  you  side  by  side,  in 
all  the  route  you  take.  If  you  are  not  correct, 
there  is  no  truth  in  induction;  there  is  no  ivisdom 
among  the  learned;  there  is  no  intelligence  to  be 
found  in  Parliament;  there  is  no  reliance  to  be 
placed  on  the  statements  of  the  learned  political 
writers  on  the  economy  of  nations ;  in  fact,  we  have 
not  any  new  lights  to  guide  us  since  the  dark  ages, 
and  must  grope  on." 


CHAPTER  VI 

A   NEW   ENGLAND    FEDERALIST 

THE  tariff  disposed  of,  the  only  question  of  in- 
terest that  remained  was  the  coming  election 
of  a  President.  The  long  list  of  great  names  put 
before  the  voters  in  the  course  of  three  years  by 
State  legislatures,  by  conventions,  by  public  meet- 
ings, by  caucuses,  by  the  members  of  Congress, 
had  been  cut  down  by  time  to  four— Adams,  Jack- 
son, Crawford,  and  Clay.  Could  Webster  have 
had  his  wish,  Calhoun  would  have  been  the  suc- 
cessor of  Monroe.  The  great  gulf  that  parted 
them  in  later  years  had  not  as  yet  begun  to  yawn. 
Again  and  again  in  his  letters  he  calls  the  illus- 
trious Carolinian  "a  true  man."  But  the  "will 
of  the  people "  assigned  to  Calhoun  the  post  of 
Vice-President,  and  of  the  four  who  remained  as 
candidates  for  the  Presidency  the  names  of  only 
three  could  come  before  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives. That  Adams,  Jackson,  and  Crawford 
would  be  the  three,  Webster  seems  never  to  have 
doubted.  Not  once  does  he  mention  the  name  of 
Clay.  Now  he  is  sure  that  "the  novelty  of  Gen'l 
Jackson  is  wearing  off,  and  the  contest  seems  to 
be  coming  back  to  the  old  question  between  Mr. 

122 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDERALIST     123 

Adams  and  Mr.  Crawford.''  "The  events  of  the 
winter,  with  the  common  operation  of  time,  have 
very  much  mixed  up  Federalists  with  some  other 
of  the  parties,  and  though  it  is  true  that  some  men 
make  great  efforts  to  keep  up  old  distinctions,  they 
find  it  difficult.  Mr.  Adams,  I  think,  sees  also  that 
exclusion  will  be  a  very  doubtful  policy,  and  in 
truth  I  think  a  little  better  of  the  kindness  of  his 
feelings  toward  us  than  I  have  done.  I  have  not 
seen  how  Federalists  could  possibly  join  with  those 
who  support  Mr.  C.  The  company  he  keeps  at  the 
North  is  my  strongest  objection  to  him." 

There  were  those,  however,  who  were  not  so 
sure  of  "the  kindness  of  his  feelings"  toward  Fed- 
eralists. That  Mr.  Adams  would  forget  who  it 
was  that  condemned  his  conduct  in  the  Senate, 
chose  a  successor  before  his  term  had  expired,  and 
forced  him  to  resign  seemed  scarcely  human. 
That  he  would  proscribe  all  Federalists  was  gener- 
ally believed,  and  when,  a  little  later,  the  failure 
of  the  colleges  to  elect  threw  the  choice  of  a  Presi- 
dent into  the  House,  a  member  of  the  Maryland 
delegation  wrote  to  Webster  for  advice.  The  issue 
thus  presented  to  him  was  critical.  In  the  election 
by  the  House  each  of  the  four-and- twenty  States 
was  to  cast  one  ballot,  and  that  ballot  was  to  be 
determined  by  the  majority  vote  of  the  members 
of  the  delegation.  Maryland  sent  eight  represen- 
tatives, and  so  evenly  were  they  divided  by  party 
lines  that  the  writer  of  the  letter  declared  he  be- 


124  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

lieved  that  on  his  vote  hung  that  of  Maryland. 
The  reply  assured  him  that  Adams  would  not  pro- 
scribe old  Federalists  as  a  class,  and  to  secure  this 
assurance  Webster  called  on  the  Secretary  of  State 
one  evening  and  read  the  answer  he  proposed  to 
send.     In  it  were  the  words: 

"For  myself,  I  am  satisfied,  and  shall  give  him 
my  vote  cheerfully  and  steadily.  And  I  am  ready 
to  say  that  I  should  not  do  so  if  I  did  not  believe 
that  he  would  administer  the  government  on  lib- 
eral principles,  not  excluding  Federalists,  as  such, 
from  his  regard  and  confidence.     .     .     . 

"I  wish  to  see  nothing  like  a  portioning,  par- 
celing out,  or  distributing  offices  of  trust  among 
men  called  by  different  denominations.  .  .  . 
What  I  think  just  and  reasonable  to  be  expected 
is  that,  by  some  one  clear  and  distinct  case,  it 
may  be  shown  that  the  distinction  above  alluded 
to  does  not  operate  as  cause  of  exclusion."  To 
this  Adams  objected.  "The  letter  seemed  to  re- 
quire him,  or  expect  him,  to  place  one  Federalist 
in  the  administration.  Here  I  interrupted  him, 
and  told  him  he  had  misinterpreted  the  writer's 
meaning.  That  the  letter  did  not  speak  of  those 
appointments  called  Cabinet  appointments  par- 
ticularly, but  of  appointments  generally.  With 
that  understanding,  he  said  the  letter  contained  his 
opinions. ' ' 

Thus  assured,  the  hesitating  member  from  Mary- 
land cast  his  vote  for  Adams,  and  so  made  Mary- 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDERALIST     125 

land  one  of  the  thirteen  States  that  elected  him. 
Had  Maryland  supported  Jackson,  he  would  have 
tied  Adams,  and  the  way  would  have  been  pre- 
pared for  a  prolonged  contest.  Something  of  this 
sort  was  feared  by  Webster. 

"As  the  9th  of  February  approaches,"  he  wrote, 
"we  begin  to  hear  a  little  more  about  the  election. 
I  think  some  important  indications  will  be  made 
soon.  A  main  inquiry  is,  in  what  direction  Mr. 
Clay  and  his  friends  will  move.  There  would 
seem  at  present  to  be  some  reason  to  think  they 
will  take  a  part  finally  for  Mr.  Adams.  This  will 
not  necessarily  be  decisive,  but  it  will  be  very  im- 
portant. After  all,  I  cannot  predict  results.  I  be- 
lieve Mr.  Adams  might  be  chosen  if  he  or  his 
friends  would  act  somewhat  differently.  But  if  he 
has  good  counselors,  I  know  not  who  they  are.  I 
would  like  to  know  your  opinion  of  what  is  proper 
to  be  done  in  two  or  three  contingencies :  1.  If  on 
the  first  of  any  subsequent  ballot  Mr.  Adams  falls 
behind  Mr.  Crawford  and  remains  so  a  day  or  two, 
shall  we  hold  out  to  the  end  of  the  chapter,  or  shall 
we  vote  for  one  of  the  highest!  2.  If  for  one  of 
the  highest,  say  Jackson  or  Crawford,  for  which  1 
3.  Is  it  advisable  under  any  circumstances  to  hold 
out  and  leave  the  choice  to  Mr.  Calhoun !  4.  Would 
or  would  not  New  England  prefer  conferring  the 
power  on  Calhoun  to  a  choice  of  General  Jack- 
son?" 

The  support  of  Clay  was  indeed  important,  and 


126  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

the  followers  of  Jackson,  Adams,  and  Crawford 
were  seeking  it  earnestly.  Clay  seemed,  he  him- 
self says,  "to  be  the  favorite  of  every  one"; 
"strong  professions  of  high  consideration  and  of 
unbounded  admiration"  met  him  at  every  turn; 
he  was  "transformed  from  a  candidate  before  the 
people  to  an  elector  for  the  people."  Deeply 
aware  of  the  solemn  duty  thrust  upon  him,  time 
was  taken  to  weigh  the  facts  on  which  a  decision 
must  be  founded.  While  he  deliberated,  rumors 
of  every  sort  were  put  afloat  to  awe  and  influence 
him ;  and  when  these  failed,  anonymous  letters  full 
of  menace  and  abuse  poured  in  on  him  daily.  At 
last,  when  it  could  no  longer  be  disguised  that  he 
would  support  Adams  and  not  Jackson,  a  member 
of  the  House  from  Pennsylvania,  in  an  unsigned 
note  to  a  Philadelphia  newspaper,  declared  that  an 
"unholy  coalition"  had  been  formed;  that  Clay 
was  to  use  his  influence  for  Adams;  and  that 
Adams,  if  elected,  was  to  make  Clay  Secretary  of 
State.  Lest  Clay  should  not  see  the  charge,  a 
marked  copy  of  the  newspaper  was  sent  him.  He 
was  stung  to  the  quick,  and,  in  a  fit  of  rage,  de- 
nounced the  unknown  writer  in  a  Washington 
newspaper  as  "a  base  and  infamous  calumniator, 
a  dastard,  and  a  liar,"  and  bade  him  disclose  his 
name  that  he  might  be  held  responsible  "to  all  the 
laws  which  govern  men  of  honor."  In  plain 
words,  he  must  meet  the  Speaker  on  the  dueling- 
grounds  at  Bladensburg.     Thus  challenged,   the 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDERALIST     129 

writer  disclosed  liis  name,  and  in  a  letter  to  the 
same  Washington  newspaper  informed  "H.  Clay" 
that  he  would  prove  to  the  satisfaction  of  unpreju- 
diced minds  that  a  bargain  had  been  made,  and 
signed  the  note  "George  Kremer''— a  representa- 
tive from  Pennsylvania. 

WThat  followed  on  the  day  that  this  card  ap- 
peared has  been  described  for  us  in  lively  terms 
by  one  who  was  present  in  the  House. 

The  storm  of  war  has  at  length  burst  forth.  The  card 
of  Mr.  Clay  and  the  other  card  of  Mr.  Kremer  have 
thrown  all  here  into  strong  commotion.  The  morning 
on  which  the  letter  appeared  everybody  was  talking 
about  pistols  and  powder.  Will  he  fight  1  Has  he  ever 
fought?  Will  he  not  excuse  himself  as  coming  from 
Pennsylvania?  Where  will  they  fight?  These  were  the 
questions  which  everywhere  struck  the  ear.  When  Mr. 
Clay  entered  the  House  every  eye  followed  him.  As  to 
Kremer,  he  was  in  his  seat  two  hours  before  the  time 
of  meeting.  They  gave  no  special  sign  of  recognition, 
and  soon  after  the  morning  business  had  proceeded,  Mr. 
Clay  rose  and  made  the  statement  which  you  have  since 
seen  in  the  papers.  Every  tongue  was  hushed,  and  the 
house  was  still  as  an  empty  church.  He  spoke  low  and 
under  evident  stress  of  feeling.  Mr.  Kremer 's  assent  to 
the  proposed  investigation  was  given  in  his  usual  high 
and  sharp  key  (he  is  sometimes  jocularly  called  Geo. 
Screamer),  and  then  came  the  tug  of  war.  The  report 
gives  a  fair  representation  of  what  was  said,  but  the 
manner,  the  tones,  the  gestures,  the  soul  of  the  debate, 
no  pen  can  convey.  Kremer  is  a  strong,  broad-shoul- 
dered, coarse-looking  Pennsylvania  farmer,  with  a  florid 


130  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

face  and  short,  stiff,  sandy  hair.  His  dross  is  often  slov- 
enly; but  his  mind  is  sturdy  and  vigorous,  and  when 
much  excited  he  utters  a  deal  of  plain  sound  sense,  di- 
reetly  to  the  point. 

The  substance  of  Clay's  speech  was  a  request 
for  a  committee  to  investigate  the  charges,  and 
when  the  committee  was  ordered,  Mr.  K renter  rose 
in  his  plaee  and  assured  the  House  that  he  would 
appear  and  make  good  all  he  had  said.  But  when 
the  committee  met  and  bade  him  present  his  proof, 
he  refused  to  come,  and  denied  the  right  of  the 
House  to  take  aetiou.  Webster  wrote  to  his  bro- 
ther further  in  comment  on  this  affair,  aud  on  the 
ludicrousness  of  the  great  Mr.  Clay,  of  the  " Harry 
of  the  West,"  Speaker  of  the  House  during  six 
Congresses,  hurrying  off  in  the  dusk  of  a  cold  win- 
ter morning  to  exchange  shots  with  the  eccentric 
member  from  Pennsylvania:  "We  have  a  little  ex- 
citement here,  as  you  will  see ;  but  there  is  less  than 
there  seems.  Mr.  Clay's  ill-judged  card  has  pro- 
duced an  avowal,  or  sort  of  avowal,  which  makes 
the  whole  thing  look  ridiculous.  Mr.  Kremer  is  a 
man  with  whom  one  would  think  of  having  a  shot 
about  as  soon  as  with  your  neighbor,  Mr.  Simeon 
Atkinson,  whom  he  somewhat  resembles.  Mr. 
Adams,  I  believe,  and  have  no  doubt,  will  be 
chosen,  probably  the  first  day." 

In  this  he  was  quite  right:  Adams  was  chosen 
on  the  first  ballot,  and  Webster  was  chairman  of 
the   committee   sent  to  inform  the   Secretary  of 


A   NEW  ENGLAND   FEDERALIST     131 

State  of  his  election  by  the  House.  Writing  to  Mr. 
Mason  a  few  days  after  the  House  had  elected  Mr. 
Adams,  and  when  the  air  was  full  of  rumors  of 
cabinet  appointments,  Webster  again  asserts  his 
belief  that  Adams  will  be  liberal. 

• '  I  took  care  to  state  my  own  views  and  feelings 
to  Mr.  Adams,  before  the  election,  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  will  enable  me  to  satisfy  my  friends.  I  trust, 
that  I  did  my  duty.  I  was  very  distinct,  and  was 
as  distinctly  answered,  and  have  the  means  of 
showing  precisely  what  was  said.  My  own  hopes 
at  present  are  strong  that  Mr.  Adams  will  pursue 
an  honorable,  liberal,  magnanimous  policy.  If  he 
does  not.  I  shall  be  disappointed  as  well  as  others. 
and  he  will  be  ruined.  Opposition  is  likely  to  arise 
in  an  unexpected  quarter,  and  unless  the  adminis- 
tration has  friends,  the  opposition  will  overwhelm 
it. ' '  One  of  the  men— the  one  Xew  England  man  — 
to  whom  rumor  assigned  a  cabinet  place,  was  Web- 
ster:  but  the  report  was  without  foundation.  "It 
is  not  necessary,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Mason,  "in 
writing  to  you,  to  deny  the  rumor,  or  rumors, 
which  the  press  has  circulated  of  a  place  provided 
for  me.  There  is  not  a  particle  oi  probability  of 
any  such  offer."  His  friends,  however,  would 
gladly  have  seen  him  in  some  position  of  more  dig- 
nity than  a  seat  in  the  House;  and  when  the  new 
Congress  met  and  the  old  supporters  of  Crawford 
declared  themselves  ready  to  aid  in  putting  a  Fed- 
eralist in  the  Speaker's  chair,  Webster  was  urged 


132  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

to  become  a  candidate.  ' '  It  was  not  a  bad  thing, ' ' 
he  wrote,  "that  the  friends  of  Mr.  Crawford  gen- 
erally supported  a  Federalist  for  the  Chair.  Some 
of  my  friends  thought  I  might  have  obtained  a 
few  votes  for  the  place,  but  I  wholly  declined  the 
attempt.  If  practicable  to  place  me  there,  it  would 
not  have  been  prudent." 

The  compliment  was  a  great  one.  From  the 
discordant  factions  which  by  this  time  had  quite 
destroyed  the  old  Republican  party  of  Jefferson 
two  new  parties  were  now  about  to  be  formed,  the 
one  to  oppose,  the  other  to  support,  the  adminis- 
tration. Most  careful  leadership  was  needed,  and 
the  tender  to  Webster  of  the  nomination  to  the 
speakership  was  the  recognition  of  him  by  the 
friends  of  Adams,  Clay,  and  Crawford  as  a  broad- 
minded  and  independent  member,  whose  leader- 
ship men  of  widely  different  views  were  willing  to 
follow.  But  again  his  love  of  law  triumphed  over 
his  love  of  politics.  To  sit,  day  after  day,  in  the 
Speaker's  chair  meant  the  loss  of  much  business 
in  the  Supreme  Court,  the  profit  of  which  he  could 
ill  afford  to  spare,  and  the  performance  of  a  class 
of  duties  in  the  highest  manner  distasteful  to  him. 
The  refusal  to  accept  the  speakership  left  him  free 
to  do  as  he  pleased,  and  he  became  at  once  an  in- 
terested spectator  of  the  course  of  events. 

The  election  over  and  Adams  inaugurated,  Web- 
ster went  home  to  make  ready  for  an  event  that 
added  new  luster  to  his  fame  as  an  orator.     Al- 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDERALIST     133 

most  fifty  years  had  passed  since  the  memorable 
day  in  June,  1775,  when  the  British  thrice  went 
up  and  thrice  fled  down  the  slopes  of  Bunker  Hill. 
More  than  once  during  the  half-century  an  attempt 
had  been  made  to  mark  the  spot  where  Warren 
fell  with  a  monument  worthy  of  the  man  and  of 
his  comrades.  While  the  colonies  were  still  nomi- 
nally under  the  crown,  the  provisional  government 
of  Massachusetts  gave  permission  to  the  lodge  of 
Masons  over  which  Warren  had  presided  to  re- 
bury  his  remains,  provided  "the  colony"  might 
erect  the  monument  to  his  memory.  After  the  bat- 
tle of  Princeton  had  added  one  more  to  the  list  of 
martyrs,  the  Continental  Congress  ordered  that 
two  fine  monuments  should  be  erected— one  at  Bos- 
ton to  the  memory  of  Warren,  and  one  at  Fred- 
ericksburg to  commemorate  the  death  of  General 
Mercer.  Neither  was  ever  built,  nor  was  any 
marker  placed  till  nearly  twenty  years  after  the 
battle,  when  the  King  Solomon  Lodge  of  Charles- 
town,  at  its  own  cost,  put  up  a  wooden  pillar  eigh- 
teen feet  high,  surmounted  by  a  gilt  urn  and  stand- 
ing on  a  pedestal  ten  feet  high.  Still  later,  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  thought  for  a 
while  of  a  grand  monument  of  American  marble; 
but  it  was  left  for  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument 
Association,  a  band  of  patriotic  citizens,  to  begin 
the  work  in  earnest.  By  them  money  was  raised, 
a  design  secured,  preparations  made  to  lay  the 
corner-stone   on   the   fiftieth   anniversary   of   the 


134  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

battle,  and  Webster  chosen  orator  of  the  day.  He 
was  then  president  of  the  association,  and  doubted 
the  fitness  of  delivering  the  address;  but  his  scru- 
ples were  overcome,  and,  with  the  approval  of  Mr. 
Mason  and  his  brother,  he  undertook  the  task. 

The  memorable  parts  of  the  oration— the  mag- 
nificent opening,  the  address  to  Lafayette,  the  share 
in  the  fight  he  should  assign  to  Prescott,  the  fine 
speech  to  the  survivors  of  the  battle,  beginning 
"Venerable  men !"— gave  him  much  concern  and 
were  prepared  most  carefully.  On  the  day  this 
latter  was  composed  he  had  gone  with  his  son 
Fletcher  and  his  man  John  "Trout"  to  fish  in 
the  waters  of  Mashpee. 

"It  was,  as  he  states  in  his  Autobiography, 
while  middle  deep  in  this  stream  [the  Mashpee 
River]  that  Mr.  Webster  composed  a  great  portion 
of  his  First  Bunker  Hill  Address.  He  had  taken 
along  with  him  that  well-known  angler  John  Deni- 
son,  usually  called  John  Trout,  and  myself.  I  fol- 
lowed him  along  the  stream,  fishing  the  holes  and 
bends  he  left  for  me ;  but  after  a  while  I  began  to 
notice  that  he  was  not  so  attentive  to  his  sport 
or  so  earnest  as  usual.  .  .  .  This,  of  course, 
caused  me  a  good  deal  of  wonder,  and,  after  call- 
ing his  attention  once  or  twice  to  his  hook  hanging 
on  a  twig  or  caught  in  the  long  grass  of  the  river, 
and  finding  that,  after  a  moment's  attention,  he 
relapsed  again  into  his  indifference,  I  quietly 
walked  up  near  him  and  watched.    He  seemed  to 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDERALIST     135 

be  gazing  at  the  overhanging  trees,  and  presently, 
advancing  one  foot  and  extending  his  right  hand, 
he  commenced  to  speak:  'Venerable  men!'  "  The 
incident  was  often  alluded  to  by  Webster,  and 
years  afterward,  when  preparing  a  Fourth-of-July 
speech,  he  wrote  to  his  son:  "This  morning,  after 
breakfast  and  before  Church,  that  is  between  half- 
past  seven  and  eleven  o'clock,  I  struck  out  the 
whole  frame  and  substance  of  my  address  for  the 
Fourth  of  July.  I  propose  to  write  it  all  out,  which 
I  can  do  in  three  hours,  and  to  read  it,  and  to  give 
correct  copies  at  once  to  the  printers.  So,  if  I  find 
a  trout  stream  in  Virginia,  I  shall  not  have  to  be 
thinking  out  t  Venerable  Men !    Venerable  Men ! '  " 

The  ceremonies  of  the  day  were  opened  by  the 
most  imposing  procession  Boston  had  yet  beheld. 
The  militia  in  their  uniforms,  the  masons  in  their 
regalia,  the  long  array  of  societies  of  every  sort 
with  badges  and  banners,  the  presence  in  the  line 
of  two  hundred  veterans  of  the  Revolution,  of 
whom  forty  had  manned  the  rude  earthworks  on 
Breed's  Hill;  the  presence  of  Lafayette,  through 
whom,  as  Webster  truly  said,  the  electric  spark  of 
liberty  had  been  conducted  from  the  New  World 
to  the  Old;  the  shouting  multitude  that  lined  the 
way— all  combined  to  make  a  scene  as  yet  un- 
equaled. 

Winding  its  way  from  the  Common  across  the 
bridge  to  Charlestown,  the  procession  halted  first 
on  Breed's  Hill,  where  the  corner-stone  was  laid 


136  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

with  masonic  ceremonies,  and  then  went  on  to  the 
north  side,  where,  in  the  presence  of  as  great  a  mul- 
titude as  had  ever  gathered  before  an  orator,  Web- 
ster delivered  his  First  Bunker  Hill  Address.  He 
stood  on  a  platform  at  the  foot  of  the  hill.  Before 
him,  seated  on  the  hillside  as  if  in  a  great  amphi- 
theater, or  standing  on  the  summit  in  a  dense  mass, 
was  his  audience,  gathered  from  all  the  country 
round  about. 

The  description  of  the  ends  the  monument  should 
serve,  the  address  to  the  survivors  of  the  war,  the 
apostrophe  to  Warren,  the  eulogy  of  Lafayette, 
were  greatly  admired  at  the  time.  But  there  was 
one  sentence  which  was  more  than  admired,  which 
sank  deep  into  the  memories  of  the  people,  exactly 
expressed  their  feelings,  fired  their  patriotism,  was 
transmitted  from  mouth  to  mouth,  was  quoted  and 
cited  again  and  again,  furnished  toasts  and  mot- 
tos  for  countless  occasions,  and  came  in  an  hour 
of  trial  to  have  a  meaning  far  more  serious  than 
was  in  the  mind  of  Webster  when  he  said:  "Let 
our  object  be,  our  country,  our  whole  country,  and 
nothing  but  our  country/ ' 

With  praises  of  his  oration  ringing  in  his  ears, 
Webster  set  off  to  visit  Niagara,  and  when  Decem- 
ber came  was  again  in  his  old  place  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  The  times  were  full  of  interest. 
At  last  the  "Virginia  dynasty"  was  overthrown, 
and  for  the  first  time  in  four-and-twenty  years  an 
Eastern  man  was  in  the  palace,  "where,"  Mrs. 


A  NEW  ENGLAND   FEDERALIST     137 

Webster  writes  to  a  friend, '  *  things  are  under  much 
better  regulation  than  formerly.  There  is  a  little 
of  Northern  comfort.  Instead  of  shivering  in  that 
immense  cold  saloon,  we  were  shown  into  a  good 
warm  parlor,  with  a  nice  little  white  damsel  to 
take  care  of  our  coats.  I  said  there  were  no 
changes  in  the  appearance  of  things  here;  there 
have  been  several  new  houses,  which  ought  not  to 
be  passed  over,  but  the  distances  are  so  immense 
they  are  hardly  perceptible.  The  furniture  at  the 
palace  below-stairs  is  precisely  as  it  was.  I  be- 
lieve all  the  appropriations  have  been  confined  to 
the  second  story.  There  are  many  things  below 
that  want  renewing.  I  wish  I  could  send  you  an 
inventory  of  the  furniture  as  it  was  when  Mrs. 
Adams  came  into  possession— it  's  a  curiosity.' ' 
Nor  was  Webster  less  impressed  by  the  change. 
"The  drawing-room, ' '  says  he,  "is  agreed  by  all 
to  have  received  great  improvement.  When  I  went 
there  it  was  absolutely  warm,  within  a  very  few 
degrees,  to  a  point  of  comfort.  I  even  saw  gentle- 
men walking  in  the  great  hall  of  entrance,  with 
apparent  impunity,  without  their  greatcoats  on!" 
"Mr.  Clay  appears  to  get  on  very  well  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duties.  I  believe  the  whole  diplo- 
matic corps  entertain  much  respect  for  him,  and 
what  I  have  seen  of  his  diplomatic  correspondence 
jhows  great  cleverness. ' '  "Mr.  Adams'  mission 
to  Panama  is  opposed  in  the  Senate,  and  will  be 
in  the  House  when  the  money  is  asked  for.    It  is 


138  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

not  unlikely  it  may  be  the  first  measure  which  shall 
assemble  the  scattered  materials  of  opposition. ' ' 

During  the  summer  of  1825,  Mr.  Clay  had  been 
waited  on  by  the  ministers  of  Mexico,  Colombia, 
and  Guatemala,  who,  in  the  name  of  their  coun- 
tries, invited  the  United  States  to  send  commission- 
ers to  a  congress  of  republics  at  Panama.  After 
some  inquiry  as  to  the  subjects  to  be  discussed, 
Adams  accepted,  and  in  the  annual  message  an- 
nounced that  "  ministers  will  be  commissioned  to 
attend,' '  and  soon  laid  before  the  Senate  the  names 
of  the  three  gentlemen  he  wished  to  serve.  When 
the  members  of  that  body  heard  the  words  "will 
be  commissioned, ' '  the  anger  of  all  those  who  hated 
Adams  flamed  high.  He  had  violated  the  constitu- 
tional right  of  the  Senate.  Without  consulting  it 
as  to  the  fitness  of  such  a  mission,  without  placing 
before  it  one  of  the  reasons  which  prompted  him 
to  such  an  act,  he  had  decided  the  question  and 
given  the  Senate  merely  the  duty  of  confirming  his 
appointments.  This  was  a  high-handed  affront 
not  to  be  endured,  and  when  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Relations  reported  a  resolution  that  it  was 
"not  expedient' '  "to  send  any  minister  to  the  con- 
gress of  American  nations  assembled  at  Panama, ' ' 
the  attack  on  the  President  opened  in  earnest.  As 
a  question  in  constitutional  government  it  inter- 
ested Webster  deeply,  and  he  made  up  his  mind,  if 
the  question  reached  the  House,  to  "make  a  short 
speech,  for  certain  reasons,  provided  I  can  get  out 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDERALIST     139 

of  court,  and  provided  better  reflection  should  not 
change  my  purpose, ' '  and  gave  his  reasons  to  Mr. 
Mason. 

i '  It  happened,  luckily  enough,  that  the  House  of 
Representatives  were  occupied  on  no  very  interest- 
ing subjects  during  my  engagements  elsewhere. 
You  see  Panama  in  so  many  shapes  that  you  prob- 
ably expect  to  receive  no  news  in  regard  to  it.  The 
importance  of  the  matter  arises  mainly  from  the 
dead-set  made  against  it  in  the  Senate.  I  am 
afraid  my  friend  Calhoun  organized  and  arranged 
the  opposition.  He  expected  to  defeat  the  measure. 
That  would  have  placed  the  President  in  his  power 
more  or  less,  and  if  the  thing  could  be  repeated  on 
one  or  two  other  occasions,  completely  so.  Mr. 
Adams  then  would  have  been  obliged  to  make 
terms,  or  he  could  not  get  on  with  the  Government, 
and  those  terms  would  have  been  the  dismissal  of 
Mr.  Clay.  As  far  as  to  this  point  all  parties  and 
parts  of  the  opposition  adhere  and  cohere.  Be- 
yond this,  probably,  they  could  not  move  together 
harmoniously.  Vast  pains  were  taken,  especially 
with  new  members,  to  bring  them  to  a  right  way 
of  thinking.    Your  neighbor  was  soon  gained. 

' '  At  the  present  moment,  some  who  acted  a  vio- 
lent part  in  the  Senate  wish  to  have  it  understood 
that  they  are  not,  therefore,  to  be  counted  as  mem- 
bers of  a  regular  opposition.  I  have  been  informed 
that  Mr.  Woodbury  and  Mr.  Holmes  disclaim  op- 
position.   Others,  again,  say  they  had  not  full  in- 


140  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

formation,  and  complain  of  that.  Others  make 
quotations  of  sentences,  words,  or  syllables  from 
the  documents  and  carp  at  them.  But  you  see  all. 
In  H.  R.  [House  of  Representatives]  it  is  likely 
the  necessary  money  will  be  voted  by  30  or  40  ma- 
jority—we may  have  a  week's  debate. 

"The  real  truth  is,  Mr.  Adams  will  be  opposed 
by  all  the  Atlantic  States  south  of  Maryland.  So 
would  any  other  Northern  man.  They  will  never 
acquiesce  in  the  administration  of  any  President 
on  our  side  the  Potomac.  This  may  be  relied  on, 
and  we  ought  to  be  aware  of  it.  The  perpetual 
claim  which  is  kept  up  on  the  subject  of  negro 
slavery  has  its  objects.  It  is  to  keep  the  South  all 
united  and  all  jealous  of  the  North.  The  North- 
western States  and  Kentucky  are  at  present  very 
well  disposed;  so  is  Louisiana.  Tennessee  and 
Alabama  will  agree  to  anything,  or  oppose  any- 
thing, as  General  Jackson's  interest  may  require. 
The  Crawford  men  in  Georgia  will  doubtless  go  in 
the  same  direction.  In  North  Carolina  there  are 
some  who  prefer  Mr.  Adams  to  General  Jackson, 
and  in  Virginia  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  gen- 
eral can  be  effectually  supported.  Virginia  says 
little  about  the  men  whom  she  would  trust,  but  op- 
poses those  actually  in  power.  In  our  house,  how- 
ever, the  Virginia  phalanx  of  opposition  is  not  for- 
midable; more  than  a  third,  in  number,  may  be 
reckoned  favorable.  There  is  some  reason  to  think 
the  Jackson  fever  begins  to  abate  in  Pennsylvania, 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDERALIST     141 

and  doubtless  it  is  over  in  New  Jersey.  Under 
these  circumstances,  if  New  York  and  New  Eng- 
land go  steady,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  South  will 
immediately  regain  the  ascendancy." 

A  month  later  the  long-promised  speech  was  de- 
livered, the  action  of  the  President  defended,  and 
the  place  of  the  executive  in  our  system  of  gov- 
ernment carefully  explained.  For  the  moment  it 
seemed  as  if  Webster  was  henceforth  to  be  con- 
sidered a  supporter  of  the  administration,  and  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  President  in  the  House.  But  such 
he  was  not  to  be.  The  duties  of  a  representative 
had  never  been  attractive.  Quite  as  much  of  his 
time  when  in  Washington  had  been  given  to  cases 
in  the  Supreme  Court  as  to  the  work  in  the  House. 
He  was  famous  as  an  orator  and  great  as  a  lawyer, 
but  men  whose  names  have  been  long  since  forgot- 
ten surpassed  him  as  congressmen.  When,  there- 
fore, Mr.  Rufus  King  resigned  the  British  mission 
early  in  1826,  Webster  eagerly  sought  the  post, 
and  in  his  usual  way  turned  to  Mr.  Mason  for 
advice. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  was  the  answer,  "that  you 
cannot,  under  existing  circumstances,  assert  your 
claim  at  the  present  time.  Should  the  government 
offer  you  the  appointment,  I  think  you  ought  not 
to  refuse  it.  But,  if  I  mistake  not,  it  will  be 
thought  you  cannot  at  this  time  be  spared  from  the 
House  of  Representatives.  And  as  far  as  I  under- 
stand the  state  of  that  body,  I  am  inclined  to  think 


142  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

your  presence  there  at  the  ensuing  session  very 
important. ' ' 

But  the  advice  need  never  have  been  asked;  the 
ink  and  the  postage  were  wasted :  for  Adams  never 
for  one  moment  thought  seriously  of  appointing 
Webster  to  any  office,  and  he  went  home  at  the 
close  of  the  session  to  be  renominated  and  reelected 
as  the  representative  of  the  Boston  district  in  the 
Twentieth  Congress. 

When  Webster  came  again  to  Washington  his 
reputation  as  an  orator  had  been  further  increased 
by  his  "  Discourse  in  Commemoration  of  the  Lives 
and  Services  of  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son. "  The  parts  these  two  men  had  played  in  the 
founding  of  the  republic  had  indeed  been  great 
and  signal.  Both  had  been  members  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  and  of  the  committee  appointed 
to  frame  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The 
one  had  written  that  famous  document,  the  other 
had  been  its  foremost  defender,  and  both  had 
signed  it.  Both  had  represented  our  country  at 
foreign  courts,  each  had  been  a  leader  of  a  great 
political  party,  and  each  had  been  raised  first  to 
the  Vice-Presidency  and  then  to  the  Presidency 
of  the  United  States.  Their  deaths  at  any  time 
would  have  been  events  of  much  public  concern; 
but  their  deaths  on  the  same  day,  and  that  day  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  adoption  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  deeply  impressed  their  coun- 
trymen as  one  of  the  remarkable  coincidences  in 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDEEALIST     143 

history.  Commemoration  services  were  held  in 
many  places,  and  for  that  at  Boston  the  city  coun- 
cil chose  August  2,  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
day  on  which  the  engrossed  copy  of  the  Declara- 
tion was  laid  upon  the  table  of  Congress  to  be 
signed,  and  invited  Webster  to  deliver  the  oration. 

A  speech  by  such  a  man  on  such  an  occasion 
should  have  been  delivered  in  the  largest  hall  the 
city  contained,  or,  in  the  open,  from  a  platform  on 
the  Common.  But  the  city  fathers  selected  Fan- 
euil  Hall,  draped  it  in  black,  packed  the  stage  and 
floor  with  seats  and  settees,  and  when  the  proces- 
sion had  entered  and  the  last  seat  was  occupied 
shut  the  doors  in  the  faces  of  the  crowd  without. 
Sure  that  there  must  be  room  within  the  hall,  the 
people  on  the  street  first  began  to  murmur,  and  then 
to  shout  and  call,  till  Webster,  coming  to  the  edge 
of  the  platform,  said,  in  a  voice  heard  above  the 
din:  "Let  those  doors  be  opened  !"  He  was 
obeyed,  a  rush  followed,  every  inch  of  standing- 
room  was  quickly  taken,  and  quiet  restored. 

The  oration  was  much  admired,  and  two  passages 
in  particular— the  description  of  eloquence,  and 
the  imaginary  debate  between  Adams  and  the  op- 
ponent of  independence— wexe  thought  unrivaled. 
Joseph  Hopkinson  assured  Webster  that  the  argu- 
ment against  the  Declaration  seemed  to  him  much 
stronger  than  that  in  support  of  it.  "This,"  said 
he,  i '  confirms  an  opinion  I  have  long  held,  that  as 
things  then  stood,  and  putting  the  result  out  of  the 


144  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

case,  the  strength  of  all  human  reasoning  was  with 
those  who  opposed  the  measure,  although  every 
elevated  and  noble  feeling  was  in  favor  of  it." 
" There  were  parts,"  Richard  Rush  wrote,  on  re- 
ceiving his  pamphlet  copy  of  the  oration,  "that 
thrilled  me.  I  read  them  to  my  family,  and  they 
thrilled  them  too.  The  speech  beginning  on  page 
38  made  my  hair  rise.  It  wears  the  character  of  a 
startling  historical  discovery,  that  burst  upon  us 
at  this  extraordinary  moment,  after  sleeping  half 
a  century.  Curiosity,  admiration,  the  very  blood, 
all  are  set  on  fire  by  it.  Nothing  in  Livy  ever  moved 
me  so  much.  Certainly  your  attempt  to  pass  the 
doors  of  that  most  august  sanctuary,  the  Congress 
of  76,  and  become  a  listener  and  reporter  of  its 
immortal  debates,  was  extremely  bold,  extremely 
hazardous.  Nothing  but  success  could  have  justi- 
fied it,  and  you  have  succeeded."  In  time  the 
speech,  put  into  the  mouth  of  Adams,  found  its 
way  into  school  readers  and  speakers;  was  de- 
claimed by  three  generations  of  young  orators ;  was 
thought  by  many  to  have  really  been  delivered  in 
Congress,  and  twenty  years  after  the  day  Webster 
moved  his  audience  by  the  delivery  of  it  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  letters  still  came  to  him  asking  if  it  was  not 
genuine.  Later  still,  when  a  member  of  Fillmore 's 
cabinet,  Webster  was  asked  by  the  President  what 
authority  he  had  for  putting  the  speech  into  the 
mouth  of  John  Adams,  when  it  was  well  known 
that  the  Continental  Congress  always  sat  behind 


A  NEW  ENGLAND  FEDEEALIST     145 

closed  doors.  Webster  answered  that,  save  the 
character  of  the  man  and  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Adams, 
he  had  none,  and  added,  "I  will  tell  you  what  is 
not  generally  known:  I  wrote  that  speech  one 
morning,  before  breakfast,  in  my  library,  and  when 
it  was  finished  my  paper  was  wet  with  my  tears." 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    ENCOUNTEK    WITH    HAYNE 

THE  return  of  winter  brought  Webster  back  to 
Washington  to  enter  on  what  proved  to  be  his 
last  months  of  service  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. On  March  4,  1827,  the  term  of  Senator  Mills 
of  Massachusetts  would  end,  and  the  health  of 
that  gentleman  being  far  from  good,  it  was  certain 
that  he  would  not  be  returned  to  the  Senate. 
Against  this  Webster  protested ;  but  when  the  Gen- 
eral Court  met,  the  State  Senate  chose  Levi  Lin- 
coln and  sent  his  name  to  the  House.  Before  that 
body  could  act,  Mr.  Lincoln  positively  refused  to 
serve;  so  the  election  went  over  to  the  June  ses- 
sion of  1827,  when  Webster  was  chosen  by  a  large 
majority,  and  took  his  seat  the  following  Decem- 
ber. But  he  came  to  the  capital  a  broken  and  dis- 
heartened man ;  for  Mrs.  Webster,  who  had  accom- 
panied him  as  far  as  New  York,  was  unable  to  go 
farther,  and  died  there  in  January,  1828.  A  long 
period  of  despondency  followed.  For  months  he 
could  do  nothing.  To  one  friend  he  writes  in 
his  misery:  "I  find  myself  again  in  the  court 
where  I  have  been  so  many  winters,  and  sur- 
rounded by  such  men  and  things  as  I  have  usually 

m 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    147 

found  here.  But  I  feel  very  little  zeal  or  spirit  in 
regard  to  passing  affairs.  My  most  strong  pro- 
pensity is  to  sit  down  and  sit  still;  and  if  I  could 
have  my  wish,  I  think  the  writing  of  a  letter  would 
be  the  greatest  effort  I  should  put  forth  for  the 
residue  of  the  winter."  To  another  friend  he  de- 
clares: UI  do  not  expect  to  find  myself  involved 
in  a  great  pressure  of  affairs,  and  certainly  shall 
do  nothing  that  I  am  not  absolutely  obliged  to  do. ' ' 

Out  of  this  depressed  and  morbid  state  Webster 
was  now  lifted  by  the  appearance  in  the  Senate 
of  the  bill  which  laid  the  duties  ever  since  known 
as  the  "tariff  of  abominations."  The  law  of  1824, 
designed  to  protect  the  growers  of  wool  and  the 
makers  of  cloth,  had  failed  signally,  and  had 
scarcely  been  two  years  upon  the  statute-book  when 
the  men  in  whose  interests  the  tariff  was  laid  were 
clamoring  for  its  repeal.  The  wool-growers  of 
Berkshire,  the  manufacturers  of  New  England,  the 
State  of  Massachusetts,  whose  delegation  did  not 
cast  one  vote  for  the  tariff  act  of  1824,  now  sent 
long  memorials  to  Congress.  A  committee  repre- 
senting the  factory-owners  appeared  in  Washing- 
ton to  lobby  for  the  bill,  and  in  January,  1827,  such 
a  bill  as  they  wanted  passed  the  House  and  was 
laid  on  the  table  of  the  Senate  by  the  casting-vote 
of  Calhoun.  Both  senators  from  Massachusetts, 
now  become  a  tariff  State,  voted  for  the  bill. 

The  closeness  of  the  struggle  was  ominous,  and 
each  side,  aroused  and  thoroughly  in  earnest,  made 


148  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

ready  for  a  renewal  of  the  contest  when  Congress 
should  meet  again.  Excited  by  the  speeches  of 
Robert  Y.  Hayne,  James  Hamilton,  and  Dr. 
Thomas  Cooper,  the  people  of  South  Carolina  be- 
gan "to  calculate  the  value  of  our  union,"  to  ask 
"Is  it  worth  our  while  to  continue  this  union  of 
States,  where  the  North  demands  to  be  our  mas- 
ter?" and  filled  their  memorials  with  language  of 
no  uncertain  kind,  which  North  Carolina,  Georgia, 
and  Alabama  more  than  reechoed. 

In  the  North  a  convention  of  Friends  of  Do- 
mestic Manufactures  was  held  at  Harrisburg,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  a  new  tariff,  based  on  its  labors,  was 
laid  before  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1828 
—a  tariff  so  hateful  in  its  rates  that  its  opponents 
were  confident  it  would  not  pass.  Indeed,  it  was 
carefully  prepared  to  invite  defeat,  for  a  Presi- 
dential election  was  close  at  hand,  and  the  friends 
of  Jackson  did  not  dare  to  go  before  the  country 
as  its  executioners.  In  the  first  place,  all  duties 
were  made  high  in  order  to  please  the  protection- 
ists of  the  Middle  States  and  to  keep  them  in  the 
Jackson  party.  In  the  second  place,  whatever  raw 
material  New  England  used  was  heavily  taxed.  In 
the  third  place,  it  was  agreed  that  Jackson  men 
from  both  North  and  South  should  unite,  prevent 
amendment,  and  force  a  vote  on  the  bill  with  all 
its  obnoxious  duties.  But  when  the  yeas  and  nays 
were  called  on  the  passage  of  the  bill,  the  Jackson 
men  from  the  Southern  States  were  to  turn  about 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    149 

and  vote  nay,  and  as  it  was  believed  that  the  men 
from  New  England  would  be  forced  to  do  likewise, 
the  bill  would  be  lost.  As  the  Jackson  men  from 
the  Northern  States  were  to  answer  yea,  the  odium 
of  defeat  would  rest  on  the  supporters  of  Adams, 
and  the  followers  of  the  Hero  of  New  Orleans 
would  appear  as  the  advocates  of  the  American 
system. 

Unhappily,  the  plan  failed;  the  House  passed 
the  bill,  and  threw  the  responsibility  of  rejection 
on  the  Senate. 

In  the  debate  which  now  followed,  Webster  did 
not  intend  to  take  part.  He  had  just  taken  his  seat 
as  a  new  member ;  only  a  few  weeks  before  he  had 
come  from  the  grave  of  his  wife,  and,  crushed  and 
heartbroken,  felt  "very  little  zeal  or  spirit  in  re- 
gard to  passing  affairs.' '  But,  as  the  discussion 
went  on,  and  he  heard  senator  after  senator  assail 
New  England,  and  charge  her  with  measures  she 
had  steadily  resisted  till  resistance  was  vain;  as 
he  heard  a  senator  from  North  Carolina  speak  of 
that  State  as  ' '  chained  to  the  car  of  Eastern  manu- 
facturers, "  and  describe  "this  new  system' '  as 
"peculiar  to  aristocrats  and  monarchists";  as  he 
heard  Benton  of  Missouri  assert  that,  as  New  Eng- 
land had  originated  all  the  tariff  bills,  she  ought 
not  now  to  complain  of  the  burden  they  had  laid  on 
her  commerce ;  as  he  heard  Hayne  of  South  Caro- 
lina declare  that  "in  this  business  the  interests  of 
the  South  have  been  sacrificed,  shamefully  sacri- 


150  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

need,  her  feelings  disregarded,  her  wishes  slighted, 
her  honest  pride  insulted";  as  he  heard  him  pro- 
claim that '  *  this  system  has  created  discordant  feel- 
ings, strife,  jealousy,  and  heart-burnings,  which 
never  ought  to  exist  between  the  different  sections 
of  the  same  country. ' '  Webster  saw  that  the  hour 
had  come  to  depart  from  his  intention  to  be  silent. 
Rising  in  his  place,  he  said:  "I  have  not  had  the 
slightest  wish  to  discuss  this  measure,  not  believ- 
ing that,  in  the  present  state  of  things,  any  good 
could  be  done  by  me  in  that  way ;  but  the  frequent 
declarations  that  this  was  altogether  a  New  Eng- 
land measure,  a  bill  for  securing  a  monopoly  to  the 
capitalists  of  the  North,  and  other  expressions  of 
a  similar  nature,  have  induced  me  to  say  a  few 
words. ' ' 

Such  being  his  reasons,  he  denied  that  New  Eng- 
land had  ever  been  a  leader  in  protection.  He  de- 
clared that  from  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
till  1824  she  had  held  back  and  had  held  others 
back,  because  she  believed  that  it  was  best  that 
manufactures  should  make  haste  slowly;  because 
she  felt  reluctant  to  build  great  interests  on  the 
foundation  of  government  patronage;  and  because 
she  could  not  tell  how  long  that  patronage  would 
last,  or  with  what  sturdiness,  skill,  or  perseverance 
it  would  continue  to  be  granted.  But  the  tariff  of 
1824  had  settled  the  policy  of  the  government,  and 
nothing  was  left  to  New  England  but  to  conform 
herself   to    the    will    of    others;    nothing    but   to 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    151 

consider  that  the  government  had  fixed  and  deter- 
mined its  policy,  and  that  its  policy  was  protec- 
tion. A  vast  increase  of  investments  in  manufac- 
tures had  followed,  and  New  England  had  fitted 
her  pursuits  and  her  industry  to  the  new  condition. 
Neither  the  principle  on  which  the  bill  was  founded, 
nor  the  provisions  which  it  contained,  received  his 
approval;  but  the  welfare  of  New  England  as  a 
whole  was  to  be  considered,  and  in  the  end  he  voted 
for  its  passage.  Just  as  the  question  was  about  to 
be  put,  Hayne  made  a  solemn  protest  against  the 
bill  as  a  partial,  unjust,  and  unconstitutional  meas- 
ure, and  Webster  answered  him;  but  what  he  said 
was  not  reported. 

As  the  news  of  the  passage  of  the  bill  and  the 
approval  of  the  President  spread  over  the  country, 
it  was  received  with  mingled  feelings  of  approba- 
tion and  disgust.  In  Massachusetts  the  vote  of 
Webster  for  the  tariff  was  bitterly  denounced  and 
as  warmly  defended.  He  seemed  to  have  lost 
ground,  so  his  friends  determined  to  give  him  a 
great  public  dinner  and  afford  him  a  chance  to 
explain  his  change  of  position.  Faneuil  Hall  was 
accordingly  secured,  and  on  the  5th  of  June,  1828, 
he  received  his  first  public  ovation.  "On  no 
former  occasion  of  festivity,"  says  the  Boston 
"Chronicle,"  "has  the  old  Cradle  of  Liberty  been 
so  beautifully  and  splendidly  decorated  as  it  is  to- 
day in  honor  of  the  Guest  whom  the  people  of  this 
city  delight  to  honor.     The  pillars  are  tastefully 


152  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

embellished  with  evergreens,  and  the  display  of 
national  flags  is  rich  and  variegated.  From  the 
center  of  the  roof  are  suspended  a  number  of  flags 
of  various  colors,  which  come  down  in  festoons,  the 
ends  hidden  under  the  green  foliage  which  winds 
the  posts.  The  end  fronting  the  door  is  orna- 
mented (in  addition  to  the  two  pictures  of  Wash- 
ington and  Faneuil)  with  a  bust  of  John  Adams, 
encircled  with  a  wreath  of  flowers,  under  an  arch, 
on  the  pillars  of  which  are  the  names  of  our  prin- 
cipal military  and  naval  heroes.  The  arch  is  sur- 
rounded with  the  inscription,  'Our  country,  our 
whole  country,  and  nothing  but  our  country. '  Over 
the  doors  are  placed  a  ship,  a  plow,  and  a  shearing- 
machine,  indicating  commerce,  agriculture,  and 
manufactures.  On  all  sides  of  the  Hall  are  ban- 
ners belonging  to  the  various  societies  and  military 
companies  of  the  city." 

The  toasts,  in  the  good  old  fashion  of  the  time, 
were  thirteen  in  number,  and  when  the  second  was 
reached,  and  the  toast-master  read,  "Our  distin- 
guished guest— worthy  the  noblest  homage  which 
freemen  can  give,  or  a  freeman  receive,  the  homage 
of  their  hearts,"  the  five  hundred  gentlemen  gath- 
ered round  the  tables  rose  and  gave  forth  shouts 
of  welcome  that  were  heard  in  the  streets.  The  re- 
sponse of  Webster  was  an  explanation  of  his  vote 
for  the  tariff  and  for  the  bill  in  aid  of  the  soldiers 
of  the  Revolution.  It  was  a  defense  of  his  posi- 
tion on  internal  improvements  at  federal  expense, 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    155 

a  condemnation  of  the  political  methods  of  the 
Jackson  party,  and  a  scornful  reply  to  all  who  hated 
New  England.  The  burden  of  the  speech  was, ' '  Be 
not  narrow-minded. ' '  "I  was  not  at  liberty, ' '  said 
he,  "to  look  exclusively  to  the  interests  of  the  dis- 
trict in  which  I  live,  and  which  I  have  heretofore 
had  the  high  honor  of  representing.  I  was  to  ex- 
tend my  views  from  Barnstable  to  Berkshire,  to 
comprehend  in  it  a  proper  regard  for  all  interests, 
and  a  proper  respect  for  all  opinion s."  "It  is  my 
opinion,  Mr.  President,  that  the  present  govern- 
ment cannot  be  maintained  but  by  administering 
it  on  principles  as  wide  and  broad  as  the  country 
over  which  it  extends.  I  mean,  of  course,  no  ex- 
tension of  the  powers  which  it  confers ;  but  I  speak 
of  the  spirit  with  which  those  powers  should  be 
exercised.  If  there  be  any  doubt  whether  so  many 
republics,  covering  so  great  a  portion  of  the  globe, 
can  be  long  held  together  under  this  Constitution, 
there  is  no  doubt,  in  my  judgment,  of  the  impossi- 
bility of  so  holding  them  together  by  any  narrow, 
contracted,  local,  or  selfish  system  of  legislation. 
To  render  the  Constitution  perpetual  (which  God 
grant  it  may  be),  it  is  necessary  that  its  benefits 
should  be  practically  felt  by  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try and  all  interests  in  the  country.  The  East  and 
the  West,  the  North  and  the  South,  must  all  see 
their  own  welfare  protected  and  advanced  by  it." 
While  Webster  in  the  summer  of  1828  was  warn- 
ing his  friends  that  the  Union  could  not  be  pre- 


156  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

served  by  a  "narrow,  contracted,  local,  or  selfish 
system  of  legislation,"  the  people  of  South  Caro- 
lina, declaring  the  tariff  to  be  just  such  a  system, 
were  hurrying  on  toward  nullification  and  the  dis- 
ruption that  Webster  feared.  Wlien  news  of  the 
passage  of  the  bill  reached  that  State,  the  flags  on 
the  shipping  in  Charleston  harbor  were  put  at  half- 
mast  ;  a  great  anti-tariff  meeting  was  held,  and  ad- 
dresses were  made  to  the  people  of  the  State.  The 
governor  was  urged  to  assemble  the  legislature  at 
once;  the  press,  with  one  voice,  called  on  the  peo- 
ple not  to  wear  or  use  a  ' '  tariffed  article, ' '  and  not 
to  buy  a  horse,  a  mule,  a  hog,  or  a  flitch  of  bacon, 
a  drop  of  whisky,  or  a  piece  of  bagging  from  Ken- 
tucky; the  Fourth-of-July  toasts  and  speeches 
abounded  in  sentiments  of  sedition;  and  when  the 
legislature  met  in  the  winter  it  adopted  the  '  *  South 
Carolina  Exposition  of  1828,"  in  which  the  doc- 
trine of  nullification  was  well  and  clearly  stated 
by  John  C.  Calhoun,  and  sent  to  Congress  a  memo- 
rial against  the  tariff.  Beyond  this  the  State  legis- 
lature was  not  then  ready  to  go;  but  the  Exposi- 
tion, in  pamphlet  form,  was  scattered  over  the 
South  in  the  spring  of  1829,  and  found  its  way  in 
considerable  numbers  to  the  North.  At  last  the 
State-Bights  party  had  a  platform  drawn  by  the 
hand  of  a  master  and  setting  forth  its  principles 
boldly  in  unmistakable  terms;  and  had  its  cham- 
pions in  Congress,  and  its  supporters  in  every  State 
below  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio  rivers. 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    157 

But  where  were  the  champions  and  the  leaders 
of  the  national  party?  Who  was  to  frame  a  plat- 
form, state  principles,  and  expound  the  Constitu- 
tion for  those  whose  motto  was,  "Our  country, 
our  whole  country,  and  nothing  but  our  coun- 
try "1  That  Webster  had  seriously  meditated  the 
assumption  of  this  task  must  not  be  doubted. 
For  thirty  years  the  theme  of  all  his  speeches 
had  been  love  of  country,  devotion  to  the  Union, 
the  grandeur  and  meaning  of  the  Constitution. 
He  had  preached  it  to  the  people  of  Hanover 
while  a  college  lad,  to  the  people  of  Fryeburg  while 
a  teacher  in  their  school,  to  the  "Federal  Gentle- 
men of  Concord "  while  a  struggling  lawyer  yet 
unknown  to  fame,  and  had  embodied  it  in  the  Ports- 
mouth oration  in  1812.  He  had  expounded  the 
Constitution  in  his  Brentwood  address,  in  his  first 
set  speech  in  Congress,  in  the  Dartmouth  College 
case,  in  the  case  of  Gibbons  against  Ogden,  and  in 
the  oration  on  Bunker  Hill;  and  in  the  eulogy  on 
Adams  and  Jefferson  in  glowing  terms  he  had  be- 
sought his  countrymen  to  guard,  preserve,  and  cher- 
ish evermore  the  "glorious  liberty/'  the  "benign 
institutions, ' '  of  "our  own  dear  native  land." 
That  he  should  now  behold  unmoved  the  growing 
sentiment  of  disunion  in  the  South,  that  he  should 
read  with  indifference  the  "Exposition  of  1828/ ' 
is  most  unlikely.  That  he  resolved  to  combat  the 
doctrine  of  nullification  when  the  next  occasion 
offered,  and  that  he  prepared  himself  carefully,  is 


158  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

far  more  in  accordance  with  his  habits  and  his  rec- 
ord. Certain  it  is  that  when  the  time  came  for  an 
answer  to  the  Exposition  he  was  not  unprepared 
to  make  it. 

The  first  Congress  during  the  administration  of 
Jackson  assembled  on  December  7,  1829,  and  for 
three  weeks  the  Senate  did  little  more  than  receive 
petitions  and  dispose  of  motions  of  inquiry.  Not 
one  of  these  motions  provoked  debate  till,  on  De- 
cember 29,  Senator  Foot  of  Connecticut  offered  his 
resolution,  which  reads :  ' '  Resolved,  That  the  Com- 
mittee on  Public  Lands  be  instructed  to  inquire 
into  the  expediency  of  limiting,  for  a  period,  the 
sales  of  public  lands  to  such  lands  only  as  have 
heretofore  been  offered  for  sale  and  are  subject  to 
entry  at  the  minimum  price.  And  also,  whether 
the  office  of  Surveyor-General  may  not  be  abol- 
ished without  detriment  to  the  public  interest. " 
Scarcely  had  the  clerk  finished  reading  when  Ben- 
ton of  Missouri  was  on  his  feet  to  demand  the  ob- 
ject which  the  mover  had  in  view,  and  brought  on 
a  debate  which  ended  in  postponing  consideration 
for  a  few  days.  When  the  resolution  was  at  length 
taken  up,  a  general  discussion  followed,  and  on 
the  18th  of  January,  1830,  Benton  delivered  a  great 
speech.  During  the  debate  a  few  days  before  he 
had  taken  occasion  to  denounce  the  resolution  as 
an  attempt  to  check  immigration  to  the  West;  to 
declare  it  another  outbreak  of  that  hatred  of  the 
East  for  the  West  manifested  over  and  over  again 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    159 

in  the  course  of  the  last  f our-and-f orty  years ;  and 
had  declared  that  it  was  time  "to  face  about  and 
fight  a  decisive  battle  in  behalf  of  the  West. ' '  His 
speech  was  intended  to  open  the  conflict,  and  the 
charges  of  Eastern  hostility  were  now  fully  stated. 
To  shut  the  emigrant  out  of  the  West  and  attempt 
to  keep  the  magnificent  valley  of  the  Mississippi 
a  haunt  for  wild  beasts  and  savage  men,  instead 
of  making  it  the  home  of  liberty  and  civilization, 
was  an  injury  to  the  people  of  the  Northeast  and 
to  the  oppressed  of  all  states  and  nations.  To 
force  poor  people  in  the  Northeast  to  work  as  jour- 
neymen in  the  manufactories,  instead  of  letting 
them  go  to  new  countries,  acquire  land,  and  become 
independent  freeholders,  was  a  horrid  and  cruel 
policy.  The  manufacturers  wanted  poor  people  to 
do  their  work  for  small  wages.  These  poor  people 
wished  to  go  West,  get  land,  have  their  own  flocks 
and  herds,  orchards  and  gardens,  meadows  and 
dairies,  cribs  and  barns.  How  to  hinder  it,  how 
to  prevent  their  straying  off  in  this  manner,  was 
the  present  question.  The  late  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  could  find  no  better  way  than  by  protec- 
tion to  domestic  manufactures— a  most  complex 
scheme  of  injustice,  which  taxed  the  South  in  order 
to  injure  the  WTest  and  pauperize  the  poor  of  the 
North.  That  was  bad  enough,  but  it  was  lame, 
weak,  and  impotent  compared  with  the  scheme  now 
on  the  table  of  the  Senate— a  scheme  which  pro- 
posed to  stop  the  further  survey  of  land,  limit  the 


160  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

sales  to  the  refuse  of  innumerable  pickings,  and 
break  the  magnet  which  was  drawing  the  people  of 
the  Northeast  to  the  blooming  regions  of  the  West. 
Mr.  Benton  then  went  on  to  specify  six  ' i  great  and 
signal  attempts  to  prevent  the  settlement  of  the 
West,"  and  ended  by  saying  that  the  hope  of  the 
West  lay  not  in  itself,  but  "in  that  solid  phalanx 
of  the  South  and  those  scattering  reinforcements 
in  the  Northeast ' '  which,  in  times  past,  ' '  had  saved 
the  infant  West  from  being  strangled  in  its  birth. ' ' 

The  debate  had  now  become  exciting,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  next  day  Mr.  Hayne  of  South  Caro- 
lina took  part.  He  reviewed  the  land  policy  of 
England,  France,  and  Spain  in  colonial  times, 
praised  its  liberality,  denounced  the  meanness  of 
the  United  States,  and  drew  a  dismal  picture  of 
the  way  our  government  stripped  the  settler  on  the 
public  lands  of  all  his  money,  and  then  spent  it,  not 
in  the  betterment  of  the  West,  but  in  the  East,  and 
so  entailed  on  the  hardy  frontiersman,  for  years  to 
come,  universal  poverty,  lack  of  money,  paper 
banks,  relief  laws,  and  all  the  evils,  social,  political, 
and  moral,  such  a  system  was  sure  to  produce. 

' '  But,  sir, ' '  he  exclaimed,  ' '  there  is  another  pur- 
pose to  which  it  has  been  supposed  the  public  lands 
can  be  applied,  still  more  objectionable.  I  mean 
that  suggested  in  a  report  from  the  Treasury  De- 
partment under  the  late  administration,  of  so  regu- 
lating the  disposition  of  the  public  lands  as  to 
create  and  preserve  in  certain  quarters  of  the  Union 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    161 

a  population  suitable  for  conducting  great  manu- 
facturing establishments.  .  .  .  Sir,  it  is  bad 
enough  that  government  should  presume  to  regu- 
late the  industry  of  man ;  it  is  sufficiently  monstrous 
that  they  should  attempt,  by  arbitrary  legislation, 
artificially  to  adjust  and  balance  the  various  pur- 
suits of  society,  and  to  organize  the  whole  labor 
and  capital  of  the  country.  But  what  shall  we  say 
of  the  resort  to  such  means  for  these  purposes? 
What!  create  a  manufactory  of  paupers,  in  order 
to  enable  the  rich  proprietors  of  woolen-  and  cot- 
ton-factories to  amass  wealth  ?  From  the  bottom  of 
my  soul  do  I  abhor  and  detest  the  idea  that  the 
powers  of  the  federal  government  should  ever  be 
prostituted  for  such  purposes.' ' 

While  Benton  was  making  his  attack  on  the  East, 
Webster  was  not  present  in  the  Senate,  and  as  no 
newspaper  published  speeches  the  day  after  they 
were  made,  Webster  neither  heard  nor  knew  what 
Benton  said.  But  he  did  hear  Hayne,  and  took 
notes  of  the  speech,  and  on  the  following  day  made 
what  is  known  as  his  first  reply  to  Hayne.  Noth- 
ing, said  he,  was  further  from  "my  intention  than 
to  take  any  part  in  the  discussion  of  this  resolu- 
tion, .  .  .  yet  opinions  were  expressed  yester- 
day on  the  general  subject  of  the  public  lands,  and 
on  some  other  subjects,  by  the  gentleman  from 
South  Carolina,  so  widely  different  from  my  own 
that  I  am  not  willing  to  let  the  occasion  pass  with- 
out some  reply.    In  the  first  place,  the  gentleman 


162  DANIEL  WEBSTEK 

from  South  Carolina  lias  spoken  of  the  whole 
course  and  policy  of  the  government  toward  those 
who  have  purchased  and  settled  the  public  lands 
as  wrong.  He  held  it  to  have  been  from  the  first 
harsh  and  rigorous.  He  was  of  the  opinion  that 
the  United  States  had  acted  toward  those  who  sub- 
dued the  Western  wilderness  in  the  spirit  of  a  step- 
mother; that  the  public  domain  had  been  improp- 
erly regarded  as  a  source  of  revenue ;  that  we  had 
rigidly  compelled  payment  for  that  which  ought  to 
have  been  given  away. 

' '  Now,  sir,  I  deny  altogether  that  there  has  been 
anything  harsh  or  severe  in  the  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment toward  the  new  States  in  the  West.  The 
government  has  been  no  stepmother  to  the  new 
States.  She  has  not  been  careless  of  their  inter- 
ests, nor  deaf  to  their  requests ;  but  from  the  first 
moments  when  the  Territories  which  now  form 
these  States  were  ceded  to  the  Union  down  to  the 
time  in  which  I  am  now  speaking,  it  has  been  the 
invariable  object  of  the  government  to  dispose  of 
the  soil  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  obligations 
under  which  it  was  acquired,  to  hasten  its  settle- 
ment, and  to  rear  the  new  communities  into  equal 
and  independent  States.  From  the  very  origin  of 
the  government  these  Western  lands  and  the  just 
protection  of  the  settlers  have  been  the  leading  ob- 
ject of  our  policy.  The  Indian  titles  have  been 
extinguished  at  the  expense  of  many  millions.  Is 
that  nothing?     These  colonists,  if  we  are  to  call 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    163 

them  so,  in  passing  the  Alleghany  did  not  pass  be- 
yond the  care  and  protection  of  their  own  govern- 
ment. Wherever  they  went,  the  public  arm  was 
still  stretched  over  them.  Are  the  sufferings 
and  misfortunes  under  Harmer  and  St.  Clair  not 
worthy  to  be  remembered  1  Do  the  occurrences  con- 
nected with  military  efforts  show  an  unfeeling  neg- 
lect of  Western  interests?" 

Webster  next  passed  in  review  the  four  sources 
of  the  public  lands— the  cessions  by  the  States  to 
the  old  Congress,  the  compact  with  Georgia  in  1802, 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana  in  1803,  and  the  pur- 
chase of  Florida  in  1819 ;  stated  at  length  the  con- 
ditions of  the  cessions  by  the  States;  proved  that, 
bound  by  these  conditions,  Congress  could  not  give 
away  the  lands ;  and  passed  to  another  observation 
of  Hayne's  which  "did  not  a  little  surprise"  him. 

The  gentleman  from  South  Carolina  was  anxious 
to  get  rid  of  the  lands  because  the  permanent  reve- 
nue derived  from  them  tended  to  corrupt  the  peo- 
ple and  to  consolidate  the  government.  "Consoli- 
dation," said  Webster  in  reply— "that  perpetual 
cry  both  of  terror  and  delusion— consolidation! 
When  gentlemen  speak  of  the  effects  of  a  common 
fund  belonging  to  all  the  States  as  having  a  ten- 
dency to  consolidate  the  government,  what  do  they 
mean?  Do  they  mean,  or  can  they  mean,  anything 
more  than  that  the  union  of  the  States  will  be 
strengthened  by  whatever  furnishes  inducements 
to  the  people  of  the  States  to  hold  together?    This 


164  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

is  the  sense  in  which  the  framers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion use  the  word  consolidation.  This,  sir,  is  Gen- 
eral Washington's  consolidation.  This  is  the  true 
constitutional  consolidation.  I  wish  to  see  no  new 
powers  drawn  to  the  general  government;  but  I 
confess  I  rejoice  in  whatever  tends  to  strengthen 
the  bond  that  unites  us  and  encourages  the  hope 
that  our  Union  may  be  perpetual.  I  know  that 
there  are  some  persons  in  the  part  of  the  country 
from  which  the  honorable  member  comes  who 
habitually  speak  of  the  Union  in  terms  of  indiffer- 
ence, or  even  of  disparagement.  They  significantly 
declare  that  it  is  time  to  calculate  the  value  of  the 
Union.1  The  Union  to  be  preserved  while  it  suits 
local  and  temporary  purposes  to  preserve  it,  and 
to  be  sundered  whenever  it  shall  be  found  to  thwart 
such  purposes.  Union  of  itself  is  considered  by 
the  disciples  of  this  school  as  hardly  a  good.  It  is 
only  regarded  as  a  possible  means  of  good,  or,  on 
the  other  hand,  as  a  possible  means  of  evil.  I  deem 
far  otherwise  of  the  Union  of  the  States,  and  so 
did  the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  What  they 
said,  I  believe— fully  and  sincerely  believe— that  the 
Union  of  the  States  is  essential  for  the  prosperity 

1  At  a  meeting  at  Columbia  in  the  summer  of  1827,  Thomas 
Cooper,  president  of  the  South  Carolina  College,  said  in  a  speech : 
"I  have  said  that  we  shall,  ere  long,  be  compelled  to  calculate  the 
value  of  our  Union,  and  to  inquire  of  what  use  to  us  is  this  most  un- 
equal alliance  by  which  the  South  has  always  been  the  loser  and  the 
North  always  the  gainer.  Is  it  worth  while  to  continue  this  Union  of 
States  when  the  North  demands  to  be  our  masters  and  we  are  re- 
quired to  be  their  tributaries  ?  " 


THE  ENCOUNTEB  WITH  HAYNE    165 

and  safety  of  the  States.  I  am  a  Unionist.  I  would 
strengthen  the  ties  that  hold  us  together.  Far  in- 
deed in  my  wishes,  very  far  distant,  be  the  day 
when  our  associated  and  fraternal  stripes  shall  be 
severed  asunder,  and  when  that  happy  constella- 
tion under  which  we  have  risen  to  so  much  renown 
shall  be  broken  up  and  be  seen  sinking,  star  after 
star,  into  obscurity  and  night ! ' ' 

Webster  now  came  "to  that  part  of  the  gentle- 
man's speech  which  has  been  the  main  occasion  of 
my  addressing  the  Senate.  The  East!  the  obnox- 
ious, the  rebuked,  the  always  reproached  East! 
We  have  come  in,  sir,  on  this  debate,  for  even  more 
than  a  common  share  of  accusation  and  attack.  If 
the  honorable  member  from  South  Carolina  was 
not  our  original  accuser,  he  has  yet  recited  the  in- 
dictment against  us  with  the  air  and  tone  of  a  pub- 
lic prosecutor.  He  has  summoned  us  to  plead  on 
our  arraignment,  and  he  tells  us  we  are  charged 
with  the  crime  of  a  narrow  and  selfish  policy,  of 
endeavoring  to  restrain  emigration  to  the  West, 
and,  having  that  object  in  view,  of  maintaining  a 
steady  opposition  to  Western  measures  and  West- 
ern interests.  And  the  cause  of  this  selfish  policy 
the  gentleman  finds  in  the  tariff.  .  .  .  Sir,  I 
rise  to  defend  the  East.  I  rise  to  repel  both  the 
charge  itself  and  the  cause  assigned  for  it.  I  deny 
that  the  East  has  at  any  time  shown  an  illiberal 
policy  toward  the  West.  I  pronounce  the  whole 
accusation   to   be   without   the   least   foundation. 


166  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

.  .  .  I  deny  it  in  general,  and  I  deny  each  and 
all  its  particulars.  I  deny  the  sum  total,  and  I 
deny  the  details.  I  deny  that  the  East  has  ever 
manifested  hostility  to  the  West,  and  I  deny  that 
she  has  adopted  any  policy  that  would  naturally 
lead  her  in  such  a  course.  But  the  tariff !  the  tariff ! 
Sir,  I  beg  to  say,  in  regard  to  the  East,  that  the 
original  policy  of  the  tariff  is  not  hers,  whether  it 
be  wise  or  unwise.  New  England  is  not  its  author. 
It  was  literally  forced  upon  her,  and  this  shows 
how  groundless,  how  void  of  all  probability,  any 
charge  must  be  which  imputes  to  her  hostility  to 
the  growth  of  the  Western  States  as  naturally  flow- 
ing from  a  cherished  policy  of  her  own." 

Having  delivered  this  point-blank  and  vigorous 
denial,  Webster  went  on  to  cite  the  many  benefits 
the  East  had  conferred  on  the  West— the  excellent 
land  system,  the  ordinance  of  1787  which  made  free 
soil  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  the  Cumberland 
Road,  the  Portland  Canal— and  closed  by  moving 
an  indefinite  postponement  of  Mr.  Foot's  reso- 
lution. 

But  scarcely  was  he  seated  when  Benton  rose 
and  began  a  reply.  He  was  still  speaking  when  the 
Senate  adjourned  for  the  day. 

As  the  news  of  W^ebster  's  speech  spread  through 
the  city,  great  excitement  was  manifest.  That  Web- 
ster, whose  coolness  and  political  sagacity  were 
proverbial,  should  deliberately  pass  over  Benton, 
and,  singling  out  Hayne,  should  answer  him,  as- 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    167 

tounded  the  members  from  the  West  and  the  South. 
Among  the  Southern  and  Western  members  of  both 
houses,  says  the  New  York  "Evening  Post,"  the 
sensation  produced  was  so  great  that  on  the  next 
day,  when  Hayne  was  expected  to  reply,  there  was 
scarce  a  quorum  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 
The  Senate  gallery  was  packed,  the  lobbies  were 
choked,  and  ladies,  invading  the  floor  of  the  Sen- 
ate, took  the  seats  of  the  senators,  till  the  clerk's 
desk  and  the  Vice-President's  chair,  it  was  jokingly 
said,  were  the  only  spots  they  did  not  occupy. 

In  the  presence  of  this  eager  and  expectant  mul- 
titude a  member  rose  and  asked  that  the  resolution 
be  postponed  till  Monday  next,  as  Webster,  who 
wished  to  be  present  at  the  discussion,  had  engage- 
ments out  of  the  Senate  and  could  not  conveniently 
remain.  Hayne  objected.  "I  see  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  in  his  seat,  and  presume  he 
could  make  an  arrangement  which  would  enable 
him  to  be  present.  I  will  not  deny  that  some  things 
have  fallen  from  the  gentleman  which  rankled  here 
[touching  his  breast],  from  which  I  would  desire 
at  once  to  relieve  myself.  The  gentleman  has  dis- 
charged his  fire  in  the  face  of  the  Senate.  I  hope 
he  will  now  afford  me  the  opportunity  of  returning 
the  shot."  While  Hayne  paused  for  a  reply,  Web- 
ster rose  from  his  seat  and,  folding  his  arms,  said, 
with  all  the  dignity  he  could  command:  "I  am 
ready  to  receive  it.  Let  the  discussion  proceed." 
Benton  then  continued  his  speech  of  the  day  before, 


168  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

while  Webster  left  the  Senate  to  obtain  the  post- 
ponement of  his  business  in  court.  An  hour  later 
he  returned,  whereupon  Benton,  who  was  still 
speaking,  stopped,  and  yielded  the  floor  to  Hayne, 
who  at  "once  began  his  famous  reply.  The  day  was 
then  far  spent,  and  as  candle-light  was  drawing 
near,  Hayne,  after  an  hour's  speech,  gave  way  for 
a  motion  to  adjourn  till  Monday,  the  25th  of  Janu- 
ary. We  are  told  by  those  who  were  in  Washington 
at  the  time  that  as  the  report  that  Hayne  was  an- 
swering Webster  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth, 
strangers,  citizens,  and  members  of  Congress  could 
scarcely  wait  in  patience  for  the  three  days  which 
must  pass  before  the  Senate  would  again  assemble ; 
and  that,  when  the  Monday  so  eagerly  wished  for 
came,  the  mass  of  humanity  struggling  for  admis- 
sion to  the  Senate  Chamber  surpassed  anything  ever 
seen  before.  "Nothing,"  says  one  witness,  writ- 
ing on  the  evening  of  the  memorable  day,  "could 
exceed  the  crowd  which  assembled  to-day  in  the 
Senate  to  hear  the  expected  speech  of  Mr.  Webster 
in  reply  to  Mr.  Hayne ;  but  Mr.  Hayne,  keeping  all 
the  vantage  in  his  power,  occupied  the  ground  until 
the  hour  of  adjournment,  and  all  that  could  be 
heard  or  seen  of  Mr.  Webster  was  at  the  last  mo- 
ment, when  he  rose  and  claimed  and  obtained  the 
floor  for  to-morrow.  Mr.  Hayne  spoke  fluently, 
warmly,  energetically.  He,  of  course,  convinced 
all  who  were  politically  opposed  to  Mr.  Webster 
(or  who,  out  of  envy  of  the  luster  of  his  fame, 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    169 

would  willingly  see  his  brightness  dimmed)  that 
he  had  obtained  a  triumph ;  and  such  as  heard  him 
through,  and  as  may  leave  the  city  to-morrow  morn- 
ing before  Mr.  Webster  can  obtain  the  floor  to 
reply,  will  doubtless  go  away  with  the  full  convic- 
tion that  such  is  the  fact.  To-day  there  was  no 
possibility  of  squeezing  into  the  Senate  Chamber 
after  the  commencement  of  the  discussion,  and  to- 
morrow, I  presume,  it  will  be  quite  as  difficult,  for 
I  have  never  witnessed  a  more  intense  curiosity 
than  that  which  now  prevails  to  watch  every  move- 
ment in  this  political  rencounter. ' ' 

Hayne  began  by  saying  that  when  he  threw  out 
his  ideas  as  to  the  policy  of  the  government  in  re- 
gard to  the  public  lands  he  little  thought  that  he 
should  be  called  on  to  meet  such  an  argument  as 
had  been  made  by  the  senator  from  Massachusetts. 
The  gentleman  from  Missouri,  it  was  true,  had 
charged  the  Eastern  States  with  an  early  and  con- 
tinued hostility  toward  the  West.  But  the  mem- 
ber from  Massachusetts,  instead  of  making  up  the 
issue  with  the  gentleman  from  Missouri,  had  chosen 
him  as  an  adversary,  and  poured  out  the  vials  of 
wrath  on  his  devoted  head.  Not  content  with  this, 
the  Massachusetts  senator  had  gone  on  to  assail 
the  South  and  call  in  question  the  principles  and 
conduct  of  South  Carolina.  Why  was  this?  Had 
the  gentleman  discovered  in  former  controversies 
with  the  senator  from  Missouri  that  he  was  over- 
matched?   Did  he  hope  for  an  easy  victory  over  a 


170  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

more  feeble  adversary?  Was  it  his  object  to 
thrust  the  member  from  South  Carolina  between 
the  gentleman  from  Missouri  and  himself,  in  order 
to  rescue  the  East  from  the  contest  it  had  provoked 
with  the  West!     If  so,  he  should  not  be  gratified. 

Passing  from  what  Webster  did  to  what  Webster 
said,  Hayne  charged  him  with  inconsistency,  taxed 
him  with  holding  one  view  as  to  the  public  land  pol- 
icy in  1825,  and  a  very  different  one  in  1830 ;  denied 
that  New  England  had  always  been  friendly  to  the 
West ;  asserted  that  prior  to  1825  she  had  opposed 
appropriations  for  internal  improvements  in  the 
West,  and  declared  that  the  change  in  feeling  was  a 
result  of  the  coalition  of  1825.  Then  it  was,  said 
he,  that  the  "happy  union  between  the  members 
of  that  celebrated  coalition  was  consummated, 
whose  immediate  issue  was  the  election  of  a  Presi- 
dent from  one  quarter  of  the  Union,  with  the  suc- 
cession, as  it  seemed,  secured  to  another.  The 
American  System,  before  a  rude,  disjointed,  and 
misshapen  mass,  now  assumed  form  and  consis- 
tency ;  then  it  was  that  it  became  the  settled  policy 
of  the  government  that  this  system  should  be  so 
administered  as  to  create  a  reciprocity  of  interests 
and  a  reciprocal  distribution  of  government  favors : 
East  and  West,  the  tariff  and  internal  improve- 
ments, while  the  South— yes,  sir,  the  impracticable 
South— was  to  be  out  of  your  protection. ' ' 

As  one  of  the  fruits  of  the  liberal  and  paternal 
policy  of  the  government  toward  the  West,  Webster 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    171 

had  cited  the  history  of  Ohio ;  had  drawn  a  picture 
of  her  in  1794,  when  a  fresh,  untouched,  unbounded, 
and  magnificent  wilderness ;  and  another  of  her  in 
1830,  an  independent  State,  with  one  million  of  in- 
habitants; and  had  pointed  with  pride  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  march  of  progress  she  had  left  behind 
her  a  majority  of  the  old  States,  had  taken  her 
place  beside  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania,  and  in 
point  of  numbers  would  soon  admit  no  equal  but 
New  York.  Later  in  his  speech,  Webster  touched 
on  the  beneficent  effects  of  free  soil  on  the  growth 
of  States  and  the  increase  of  population  north  of 
the  Ohio,  and  asked,  Had  an  antislavery  ordinance 
been  applied  to  Kentucky  before  Boone  crossed  the 
gap  of  the  Alleghany,  would  it  not  have  contribu- 
ted to  the  ultimate  growth  of  that  commonwealth? 
Combining  these  two,  Hayne  charged  him  with 
contrasting  the  weakness  of  slave-holding  States 
with  the  superior  strength  of  free  States,  retorted 
with  a  defense  of  slavery,  made  a  comparison  of 
the  happy  lot  of  slaves  on  the  plantations  and  the 
poor,  wretched,  vile,  and  loathsome  lot  of  free  ne- 
groes in  Northern  cities,  denied  that  the  South  was 
weak,  denied  that  it  feared  slave  uprisings,  asserted 
that  slave  labor  had  enriched  the  wThole  country 
and  the  North  far  more  than  the  South,  claimed 
that  slavery  had  never  yet  been  injurious  to  indi- 
vidual or  national  character,  and  in  evidence  cited 
the  long  roll  of  sons  of  the  South  from  Washington 
to  Jackson. 


172  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

Passing  to  Webster's  remarks  on  consolidation, 
Hayne  reviewed  the  history  of  the  Federalists  and 
the  National  Republicans,  declared  they  were  one 
and  the  same,  and  denounced  them  as  men  who 
looked  on  the  Constitution  as  forming  not  a  federal 
but  a  national  union  and  regarded  consolidation  as 
no  evil.  Pie  next  fell  upon  Webster 's  record  on  the 
tariff,  and  then  charged  him  with  having  crossed 
the  border,  with  having  invaded  the  State  of  South 
Carolina,  with  making  war  on  her  citizens,  and 
with  having  sought  to  overthrow  her  principles  and 
her  institutions.  He  then  reviewed  the  history  of 
South  Carolina  and  the  history  of  Massachusetts 
from  the  days  of  the  Revolution  to  those  of  the 
Hartford  Convention,  and,  having  done  this,  asked 
who  were  the  friends  of  the  Union?  Those  who 
would  confine  the  federal  government  strictly 
within  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  Constitution, 
who  would  preserve  to  the  States  and  the  people 
all  powers  not  expressly  delegated,  who  would  make 
this  a  federal,  not  a  national,  union;  or  those  who 
favored  consolidation,  who  were  constantly  steal- 
ing power  from  the  States  to  add  strength  to  the 
federal  government,  and  who  undertook  to  regulate 
the  whole  industry  and  capital  of  the  country? 

Hayne  now  plunged  into  a  defense  of  the  South 
Carolina  doctrine  of  nullification.  It  was,  he  said, 
the  good  old  republican  doctrine  of  '98;  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Virginia  resolutions  of  '98;  of  the 
Kentucky  resolutions  of  '98  and  '99,  and  of  Mad- 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    173 

ison  's  report  of  '99 ;  it  was  the  pivot  of  the  political 
revolution  of  1800 ;  the  doctrine  of  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son; of  the  Boston  memorial  of  1809,  and  of  Web- 
ster when  he  wrote  his  pamphlet  on  the  embargo 
and  delivered  a  celebrated  speech  against  that 
measure  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
doctrine  that  the  federal  government  is  the  exclu- 
sive judge  of  the  extent,  as  well  as  the  limitations 
of  its  powers  seemed  to  him  utterly  subversive  of 
the  sovereignty  and  independence  of  the  States.  It 
made  very  little  difference  whether  Congress  or  the 
Supreme  Court  were  vested  with  this  power.  If  the 
federal  government,  in  any  or  all  of  its  depart- 
ments, could  fix  the  limit  of  its  own  authority,  and 
the  States  be  bound  to  submit  to  its  decision,  then 
were  the  States  reduced  to  mere  corporations  and 
the  government  made  one  without  limitation  of 
powers. 

When  Hayne  finished,  the  clock  in  the  chamber 
was  marking  the  hour  of  four,  and  Webster  hav- 
ing obtained  the  floor  for  the  following  day,  the 
Senate  adjourned. 

Next  morning  the  Senate  room  was,  if  possible, 
more  crowded  than  ever,  and  the  murmur  which 
swept  over  it  when  Webster  stood  up  having  died 
away  into  silence,  he  turned  toward  Calhoun,  who 
occupied  the  chair,  and  said :  ' '  Mr.  President,  when 
the  mariner  has  been  tossed  for  many  days  in  thick 
weather,  and  on  an  unknown  sea,  he  naturally 
avails  himself  of  the  first  pause  in  the  storm,  the 


174  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

earliest  glance  of  the  sun,  to  take  his  latitude  and 
ascertain  how  far  the  elements  have  driven  him 
from  his  true  course.  Let  us  imitate  this  prudence, 
and,  before  we  float  farther  on  the  waves  of  this  de- 
bate, refer  to  the  point  from  which  we  departed, 
that  we  may  at  least  be  able  to  conjecture  where 
we  are.  I  ask  for  the  reading  of  the  resolution 
before  the  Senate." 

The  resolution  having  been  read  by  the  secre- 
tary, Webster  observed  that  it  was  almost  the  only 
subject  about  which  something  had  not  been  said 
by  the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina  in  his  speech 
running  through  two  days.  Every  topic  in  the  wide 
range  of  public  affairs,  past  or  present,  general 
or  local,  seemed  to  have  attracted  Mr.  Hayne's  at- 
tention, save  only  the  resolution  under  debate.  To 
the  public  lands  he  had  not  paid  even  the  cold 
respect  of  a  passing  glance.  Webster  then  re- 
stated his  position  as  to  the  use  of  public  lands, 
and  refuted  the  charge  of  inconsistency;  upheld 
the  policy  of  the  government  in  disposing  of  its 
lands;  defended  its  right  to  engage  in  internal 
improvements,  and  answered  Hayne's  questions 
when,  how,  and  why  New  England  supported  mea- 
sures favorable  to  the  West.  He  charged  Hayne 
with  stretching  a  drag-net  over  the  whole  surface 
of  political  pamphlets,  indiscreet  sermons,  frothy 
paragraphs,  and  fuming  popular  addresses;  over 
whatever  the  pulpit  in  its  moments  of  alarm,  the 
press  in  its  heats,  and  parties  in  their  extrava- 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    177 

gance  had  thrown  off  in  times  of  general  excite- 
ment. He  declined  then,  or  at  any  time,  to  sepa- 
rate this  farrago  into  its  parts  and  answer  and 
examine  its  components,  and  came  at  last  to  the 
"grave  and  important  duty"  of  stating  and  defend- 
ing what  he  understood  "to  be  the  true  principles 
of  the  Constitution  under  which  we  are  here  as- 
sembled. ' ' 

"I  understand  the  honorable  gentleman  from 
South  Carolina  to  maintain, "  said  Webster,  "that 
it  is  a  right  of  the  State  legislature  to  interfere 
whenever,  in  their  judgment,  this  government 
transcends  its  constitutional  limits,  and  to  arrest 
the  operation  of  its  laws. 

"I  understand  him  to  maintain  this  right  as  a 
right  existing  under  the  Constitution;  not  as  a 
right  to  overthrow  it,  on  the  ground  of  extreme 
necessity,  such  as  would  justify  violent  revolution. 

"I  understand  him  to  maintain  an  authority  on 
the  part  of  the  States  thus  to  interfere  for  the  pur- 
pose of  correcting  the  exercise  of  power  by  the 
general  government,  of  checking  it,  and  of  com- 
pelling it  to  conform  to  their  opinion  of  the  extent 
of  its  powers. 

' '  I  understand  him  to  maintain  that  the  ultimate 
power  of  judging  of  the  constitutional  extent  of 
its  own  authority  is  not  lodged  exclusively  in  the 
general  government,  or  any  branch  of  it ;  but  that, 
on  the  contrary,  the  States  may  lawfully  decide  for 
themselves,  and  each  State  for  itself,  whether,  in 


178  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

a  given  case,  the  act  of  the  general  government 
transcends  its  power. 

' '  I  understand  him  to  insist  that  if  the  exigency 
of  the  case,  in  the  opinion  of  any  State  govern- 
ment, require  it,  such  State  government  may,  by 
its  own  sovereign  authority,  annul  an  act  of  the 
general  government  which  it  deems  plainly  and 
palpably  unconstitutional." 

This,  he  said,  was  the  sum  of  what  he  understood 
to  be  the  South  Carolina  doctrine.  "I  call  this 
the  South  Carolina  doctrine  only  because  the  gen- 
tleman himself  has  so  denominated  it.  I  do  not 
feel  at  liberty  to  say  that  South  Carolina,  as  a 
State,  has  ever  advanced  these  sentiments.  I  hope 
she  has  not,  and  never  may. ' '  But  ' '  that  there  are 
individuals  besides  the  honorable  gentleman  who 
do  maintain  these  opinions  is  quite  certain.  I  rec- 
ollect the  recent  expression  of  a  sentiment  which 
circumstances  attending  its  utterance  and  publica- 
tion justify  us  in  supposing  was  not  unpremedi- 
tated. '  The  sovereignty  of  the  State— never  to  be 
controlled,  construed,  or  decided  on  but  by  her  own 
feelings  of  honorable  justice.'  " 

That  the  people  have  an  inherent  right  to  resist 
unconstitutional  laws  without  overthrowing  their 
government  Webster  said  he  did  not  deny.  But 
who  should  decide  on  the  constitutionality  or  un- 
constitutionality of  laws!  This  depended  on  the 
origin  of  the  government  and  the  source  of  its 
power.    "  Is  it, ' '  said  he, ' '  the  creature  of  the  State 


THE  ENCOUNTEK  WITH  HAYNE    179 

legislatures  or  the  creature  of  the  people?  If  the 
agent  of  the  State  governments,  then  they  might 
control  it,  provided  they  could  agree  on  the  man- 
ner. If  the  United  States  government  were  the 
agent  of  the  people,  then  the  people,  and  the  peo- 
ple alone,  could  control,  restrain,  modify,  reform 
it.  According  to  the  gentleman  from  South  Caro- 
lina, it  was  the  creature  not  only  of  the  States,  but 
of  each  State  severally,  so  that  each  might  assert 
for  itself  the  power  to  settle  whether  it  acts  within 
the  limits  of  its  authority.  It  was  the  servant  of 
four-and-twenty  masters,  of  as  many  different 
wills  and  purposes,  yet  bound  to  obey  all.  This 
absurdity  arose  from  a  misunderstanding  of  the 
source  of  the  government.  It  is,  sir,"  said  Web- 
ster, "the  people's  government,  made  for  the  peo- 
ple, made  by  the  people,  and  answerable  to  the  peo- 
ple. ...  I  hold  it  to  be  a  popular  government, 
erected  by  the  people,  those  who  administer  it  re- 
sponsible to  the  people,  and  itself  capable  of  being 
amended  and  modified  just  as  the  people  may 
choose  it  should  be.  It  is  as  popular,  just  as  truly 
emanating  from  the  people,  as  the  State  govern- 
ments. It  is  created  for  one  purpose,  the  State 
governments  for  another.  It  has  its  own  powers ; 
they  have  theirs.  There  is  no  more  authority  with 
them  to  arrest  the  operation  of  a  law  of  Congress, 
than  with  Congress  to  arrest  the  operation  of  their 
law.  The  people  erected  this  government.  They 
gave  it  a  Constitution,  and  in  that  Constitution 


180  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

they  have  enumerated  the  powers  which  they  be- 
stow on  it.  They  have  made  it  a  limited  govern- 
ment. They  have  defined  its  authority.  But  no 
definition  can  be  so  clear  as  to  avoid  possibility 
of  doubt.  No  limitation  can  be  so  precise  as  to 
elude  all  uncertainty.  Who,  then,  shall  construe 
this  grant  of  the  people !  Who  interpret  their  will 
when  it  may  be  supposed  to  be  left  in  doubt!  For 
this  the  people  have  wisely  provided  in  the  Consti- 
tution itself,  when  they  declared  that  the  judicial 
power  should  extend  to  all  cases  arising  under  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States.  The 
very  end,  the  chief  design  for  which  the  Constitu- 
tion was  framed  and  adopted  was  to  set  up  a  gov- 
ernment that  should  not  be  forced  to  act  through 
State  agency  or  depend  on  State  discretion.  The 
people  had  enough  of  that  kind  of  government 
under  the  Articles  of  Confederation.  Are  we  in 
that  condition  still!  Are  we  yet  at  the  mercy  of 
State  discretion! 

1 '  Sir,  I  deny  this  power  of  State  discretion  alto- 
gether. Gentlemen  may  say  that  in  an  extreme  case 
a  State  government  might  protect  the  people  from 
intolerable  oppression.  Sir,  in  such  a  case  the  peo- 
ple might  protect  themselves  without  the  aid  of 
State  governments.  Such  a  case  warrants  revolu- 
tion. Talk  about  it  as  we  will,  these  doctrines  go 
the  length  of  revolution.  They  lead  directly  to 
disunion  and  civil  commotion,  and  therefore  it  is 
that  I  enter  my  public  protest  against  them. 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  HAYNE    181 

"When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold  for 
the  last  time  the  sun  in  heaven,  may  I  not  see  him 
shining  on  the  broken  and  dishonored  fragments 
of  a  once  glorious  union ;  on  States  dissevered,  dis- 
cordant, belligerent ;  on  a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds, 
or  drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood!  Let 
their  last  feeble  and  lingering  glance  rather  behold 
the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  republic,  now  known 
and  honored  throughout  the  earth,  still  full  high 
advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies  streaming  in  their 
original  luster,  not  a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  nor 
a  single  star  obscured,  bearing  for  its  motto  no  such 
miserable  interrogatory  as,  'What  is  all  this 
worth  V  nor  those  other  words  of  delusion  and 
folly,  ' Liberty  first  and  Union  afterward,'  but  ev- 
erywhere spread  all  over  it  in  characters  of  living 
light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds  as  they  float 
over  the  sea  and  over  the  land,  and  in  every  wind 
under  the  whole  heavens,  that  other  sentiment  dear 
to  every  true  American  heart— Liberty  and  Union, 
now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable. ' ' 


CHAPTER  VIII 

EXPOUNDEK    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION 

THE  scenes  about  the  Capitol  as  the  debate  went 
on  can  best  be  described  by  those  who  beheld 
them.  Says  one:  "I  never  saw  the  Senate  Cham- 
ber so  completely  taken  possession  of  as  it  has  been 
since  Monday.  Long  before  the  hour  of  meeting, 
in  defiance  of  a  keener  northwester  than  we  have 
experienced  since  last  winter,  fairy  forms  were 
seen  to  glide  through  the  cold  avenues  of  the  Cap- 
itol, as  eager  to  obtain  a  seat  favorable  for  hearing 
the  expected  effusions  of  master  minds  as  if  much 
more  than  a  moment's  gratification  were  at  stake; 
and  by  the  time  the  Chair  had  called  to  order,  the 
Chamber  was  filled  to  overflow."  Says  another: 
"Mr.  Webster's  last  speech  on  Mr.  Foot's  resolu- 
tion was  one  of  the  most  splendid  oratorical  efforts 
we  have  ever  heard.  Though  General  Hayne  is  as- 
serted by  the  friends  of  the  present  administration 
to  possess  no  ordinary  talents,  he  appeared  to  a 
painful  disadvantage  in  comparison  with  Mr.  Web- 
ster, whose  intellectual  power  was  perhaps  never 
so  happily  exhibited  on  any  former  occasion.  At 
the  close  of  his  last  speech  there  was  an  involun- 
tary burst  of  admiration  in  the  galleries.     His 

182 


CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPOUNDER     183 

eulogy  on  South.  Carolina,  his  panegyric  of  Dexter, 
and  his  peroration,  were  unrivaled.  His  sarcasm 
was  biting;  his  illustrations  happy  and  lumi- 
nous; his  reasoning  conclusive  and  unanswerable. 
Never  was  an  adversary  so  completely  and  entirely 
demolished.  Every  position  which  General  Hayne 
had  taken  was  prostrated,  and  his  very  weapons 
were  thrown  back  upon  him  with  a  deadly  force. 
The  Senate  seemed  to  hang  upon  the  lips  of  the 
orator  with  intense  pleasure,  and  the  audience,  nu- 
merous beyond  all  former  example,  paid  a  just 
tribute  to  his  genius  and  power  by  the  admiration 
which  they  expressed. ' '  A  third  assures  us :  "  Busi- 
ness in  the  House  lags,  the  various  speakers  ad- 
dressing themselves  to  almost  empty  benches  since 
Mr.  Webster  obtained  the  floor.  He  concluded  his 
speech  to-day,  and  it  is  universally  admitted  to 
have  been  one  of  the  greatest  efforts  of  which  the 
human  mind  is  capable.  That  it  will  add  to  the 
reputation  of  Mr.  Webster,  high  as  it  now  stands, 
no  one  can  doubt.  This  effort  has  placed  him  at 
an  unapproachable  distance  from  all  competitors. 
Faction  and  prejudice  may  try  to  prop  the  fame 
of  the  Bentons,  the  Haynes,  and  others,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Mr.  Webster;  but  there  is  not  an  intelli- 
gent individual  who  has  listened  to  this  sharp  en- 
counter who  has  not  gone  from  the  chamber  of 
legislation  fully  convinced  that  Mr.  Webster  is  by 
far  the  greatest  man  in  Congress.  You  cannot  walk 
the  streets  this  afternoon,  you  cannot  enter  the 


184  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

door  of  a  mess-room,  you  cannot  approach  the  lire 
in  the  bar-room  of  a  hotel,  but  you  hear  this  lan- 
guage from  every  mouth,  accompanied  with  ex- 
pressions of  regret  that  Mr.  Hayne  and  Mr.  Benton 
should  have  entered  into  such  an  unholy  alliance, 
and  have  made  this  premature  movement  for  the 
purpose  of  pulling  down  the  East,  and  planting 
the  South  in  its  room,  in  the  affections  of  the  West- 
ern States.  This  speech  of  Mr.  Webster  has  occu- 
pied about  six  hours  in  the  delivery,  and  were  it 
possible  to  transfer  to  paper  the  manner  in  which 
it  was  delivered,  to  infuse  with  every  report  the 
tone  of  sarcasm,  the  curl  of  the  lip,  the  flush  of  the 
cheek,  the  flash  of  the  eye,  by  which  the  language 
of  the  orator  was  frequently  enlivened,  elucidated, 
and  enforced,  then,  but  not  till  then,  could  those 
who  have  had  no  opportunity  of  hearing  this  speech 
be  made  sensible  of  the  banquet  which  they  have 
lost." 

"Opinions  as  to  the  victory  in  this  strife  are  of 
course  as  much  divided  as  are  the  parties,  whose 
different  views  of  the  Constitution  have  been  sever- 
ally maintained,  and  by  worthy  champions.  The 
opposition  party  generally  contended  that  Mr. 
Webster  overthrew  Mr.  Hayne,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  result  is  triumphantly  hailed  by  the 
friends  of  the  administration  as  a  decisive  and 
complete  victory  over  the  Eastern  Giant.  They  say 
the  Southern  orator  is  more  than  a  match  for  the 
New  England  lawyer.    Mr.  Hayne  is  truly  an  ora- 


CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPOUNDEK     185 

tor  full  of  vehemence,  eloquence,  and  passion,  a 
correct  and  powerful  reasoner,  with  a  most  vivid 
imagination,  graceful  in  person  and  action,  and 
with  a  most  musical  voice.  Mr.  Webster,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  a  lawyer,  and  a  great  lawyer,  one 
who  has  at  his  immediate  command  all  the  logic 
and  all  the  wariness  of  a  cool  and  practised  de- 
bater, of  extensive  reading  and  much  learning,  of 
perfect  self-possession  and  always  master  of  the 
subject,  and  ready  with  coolness  and  circumspec- 
tion to  seize  upon  the  weak  points  of  his  adver- 
sary. As  a  speaker,  he  is  calm,  collected,  and  dig- 
nified, sometimes  energetic,  but  never  impassioned 
or  vehement.  His  voice  is  clear  and  firm.  His 
gestures  are  few,  and  not  always  graceful.  A  ma- 
terial contrast  between  the  two  men  is  in  the  ex- 
pression and  mobility  of  their  features.  Mr.  Web- 
ster's countenance  is  generally  cold,  severe,  and 
impassive,  which  makes  the  occasional  sarcasm, 
when  accompanied  by  a  sneer  or  a  smile,  exceed- 
ingly effective.  The  face  of  Mr.  Hayne  is  con- 
stantly in  motion;  every  varying  emotion  is  dis- 
tinctly visible. 

1  'To  those  who,  without  being  influenced  by  any 
previous  opinions  of  the  comparative  powers  of 
these  gentlemen,  shall  compare  this  speech  with 
that  to  which  it  was  an  answer,  its  superiority  in 
point  of  oratorical  ability  will  be  manifest.  The 
management  of  the  argument  in  relation  to  the  pub- 
lic lands  is  exceedingly  happy.    The  retort  on  the 


186  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

subject  of  the  tariff  is  tremendous.  The  answer 
to  Mr.  Webster's  unprovoked  attack  on  the  South 
is  managed  with  great  skill.' ' 

The  great  reply  of  Webster,  in  the  opinion  of 
this  critic,  was  that  of  a  skilful  and  able  debater 
closely  pressed  by  his  opponent,  but  fighting  hard. 
' 'The  opening  is  wanting  in  dignity.  The  retort 
on  the  subject  of  Mr.  Hayne's  allusion  to  Banquo's 
ghost  is  a  good  instance  of  the  dexterous  use  of  the 
weapons  of  logic.  The  Hartford  Convention  and 
the  course  of  New  England  during  the  embargo 
and  the  war  are  not  defended  at  all.  The  most  un- 
fortunate part  of  the  speech  is  that  where  Mr. 
Webster  attempts  to  excuse  his  course  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  tariff.  The  most  prudent  course  for  Mr. 
Webster  would  have  been  not  to  break  the  silence 
on  this  subject  which  he  had  hitherto  preserved.' ' 

While  comment  of  this  sort  was  passing  from 
newspaper  to  newspaper  over  the  country,  nobody 
save  those  who  crowded  the  Senate  Chamber  knew 
what  either  ITayne  or  Webster  said.  A  few  jour- 
nals of  prominence,  and  with  wide  circulation  for 
those  days,  maintained  at  the  capital  correspon- 
dents whose  daily  or  weekly  letters  appeared  as 
soon  as  the  mail  could  carry  them ;  and  it  was  from 
such  writers  that  the  country  first  heard  of  the 
Webster-Hayne  debate.  But  for  the  full  reports 
of  the  speeches,  the  press  the  country  over  was  de- 
pendent upon  the  Washington  newspapers,  and  in 
this  instance  the  reports  were  deliberately  held 


CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPOUNDER     187 

back  for  revision.  "We  do  not  know,"  says  the 
editor  of  the  Philadelphia  ' '  G  azette ' '  of  February 
15,  "what  has  become  of  Mr.  Hayne's  and  Mr. 
Webster's  speeches."  Not  till  the  17th  of  Feb- 
ruary was  he  able  to  print  a  small  part  of  Hayne's 
reply  of  January  21,  with  the  remark,  "We  have 
at  length  received  from  Washington  the  first  part 
of  Mr.  Hayne's  speech";  and  not  till  February  25, 
just  thirty  days  after  it  was  delivered,  did  the  peo- 
ple of  Philadelphia  read  the  opening  passage  of 
Webster's  second  reply  to  Hayne.  In  March  it  was 
printed  in  the  New  York  l '  Evening  Post, ' '  and  the 
month  was  well  advanced  before  it  appeared  in 
Boston. 

But  Webster 's  friends  and  admirers  did  not  wait 
for  the  report  of  the  second  speech  to  flood  him 
with  praise.  As  the  report  of  his  first  speech  went 
abroad,  each  mail  brought  letters  full  of  enthu- 
siasm. "I  must  beg  the  favor  of  you, ' '  says  a  Bal- 
timore admirer,  "to  forward  me  a  copy  or  two  of 
your  speech  by  the  first  mail  after  it  is  committed 
to  press.  I  congratulate  you  most  cordially  and 
sincerely  upon  your  triumph  in  the  most  signal 
manner,  not  only  in  the  estimation  of  your  friends, 
but  of  your  opponents,  who  are  forced  to  acknow- 
ledge it.  From  the  date  of  that  speech  I  shall  date 
the  rise  and  successful  progress  of  liberal  and  en- 
lightened principles  in  our  country.  The  reign  of 
ignorance  must  be  short  and  the  march  of  intellect 
most  certain." 


188  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

i  i  The  glorious  effect  of  your  patriotic,  able,  and 
eloquent  defense  of  New  England, ' '  writes  another, 
"and  the  triumphant  support  you  have  given  to 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Constitution,  are 
not  confined  to  the  capital  of  the  Union.  The 
aroma  comes  to  gladden  our  hearts,  like  the  spicy 
gales  of  Arabia  to  the  distant  mariner. 

"  Never  have  I  heard  such  universal  and  ardent 
expressions  of  joy  and  approbation.  You  have  as- 
sumed an  attitude  which  the  adverse  times  de- 
manded, and  nobly  braved  the  storm  that  threat- 
ened the  destruction  of  our  liberties.  The  dignity 
and  independence  of  your  manner,  and  the  time, 
all  were  calculated  to  produce  a  result  auspicious 
to  our  destinies." 

"I  am,"  says  a  third,  writing  from  Columbia, 
South  Carolina,  "a  son  of  New  England,  and  proud 
to  claim  you  as  her  champion.  The  friends  of  Mr. 
Hayne  will  be  very  active  in  circulating  his  sec- 
ond speech  on  Foot's  resolution,  and  I  am  anxious 
to  have  the  antidote  to  circulate  with  the  bane. 
You  would  therefore  oblige  me  by  sending  me  your 
rejoinder.  Receive  my  warm  acknowledgments 
for  your  able  and  manly  defense  of  my  country, 
the  country  of  Yankees." 

"The  demand  for  copies  of  Mr.  Webster's 
speech,"  said  the  editor  of  the  "National  Intelli- 
gencer, ' '  at  whose  office  it  was  printed  in  pamphlet 
form,  "has  been  unprecedented.  We  are  just  com- 
pleting an  edition  of  twenty  thousand  copies,  which, 


CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPOUNDER     189 

added  to  a  former  edition,  will  make  an  aggregate 
of  very  nearly  forty  thousand  copies  issued  from 
this  office  alone.  There  have  also  been  printed  at 
other  places  in  the  United  States  perhaps  twenty 
different  editions  of  these  speeches.  It  is  hardly 
too  much  to  say  that  no  speech  in  the  English  lan- 
guage was  ever  so  universally  diffused  or  so  gen- 
erally read." 

Of  the  many  orations  which  up  to  this  time  had 
been  delivered  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
the  most  far-reaching  and  enduring  was  the  sec- 
ond reply  to  Hayne.  At  last  the  South  Carolina 
doctrine  had  been  fittingly  answered;  at  last  the 
Union  had  found  a  stanch  defender,  the  Constitu- 
tion a  noble  interpreter,  and  the  friends  of  both 
a  champion  able  to  give  utterance  to  the  thoughts 
and  feelings  they  could  not  so  well  express.  His 
words  sank  into  their  hearts,  his  speech  became  a 
mine  of  political  wisdom,  and  the  Constitution 
henceforth  had  for  them  a  new  meaning. 

Nor  was  the  effect  on  Webster  less  important. 
He  became  at  once  a  truly  national  character,  saw 
the  Presidency  almost  within  his  grasp,  and  from 
that  day  forth  was  animated  by  a  ceaseless  long- 
ing to  become  one  of  the  temporary  rulers  of  his 
country.  National  politics,— nay,  even  local  polit- 
ical affairs,— the  conduct  of  his  possible  competi- 
tors, his  own  course  on  the  issues  of  the  day,  now 
had  for  him  a  weight  and  moment  such  as  he  had 
never  accorded  them  before.    His  fellow-country- 


190  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

men  everywhere  became  eager  to  hear  and  see  him. 
When  Congress  rose,  a  public  dinner  was  tendered 
by  his  Boston  admirers,  and  declined.  A  publisher, 
without  his  consent,  announced  a  collection  of  his 
speeches.  An  admirer  in  Boston  sent  him  a  silver 
pitcher  as  a  testimony  of  gratitude  "for  your  ser- 
vices to  the  country,  in  your  late  efforts  in  the 
Senate,  especially  for  your  vindication  of  the  char- 
acter of  Massachusetts  and  of  New  England.' ' 

When,  a  few  months  later,  he  went  to  New  York 
City  to  try  a  case  before  the  United  States  Circuit 
Court  he  was  the  lion  of  the  hour.  Men,  and  even 
women,  who  had  never  before  been  near  a  court 
came  by  scores,  filled  the  room,  and  stood  in  crowds 
about  the  door  to  get  a  glimpse  of  him.  Later  yet, 
when  the  autumn  election  was  about  to  be  held  in 
Massachusetts,  and  it  was  announced  that  Webster 
would  address  the  electors  in  Faneuil  Hall,  men 
came  from  Salem,  Worcester,  and  many  parts  of 
the  State  to  hear  him.  So  great  was  the  crowd  that 
the  doors  were  forced  in  long  before  the  hour  of 
meeting.  It  was  Saturday  night,  and  after  he  had 
spoken  for  three  hours  the  meeting  was  adjourned 
to  Sunday  evening,  when  he  again  addressed  an 
immense  gathering  in  Center  Hall,  over  the  New 
Market.  In  the  course  of  this  two-day  speech, 
Webster,  while  condemning  Jackson's  veto  of  the 
Maysville  Road  Bill,  said:  "I  know  no  road  that 
the  administration  would  call  national.  All  roads 
are  in  some  degree  local.     They  run  over  a  par- 


CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPOUNDER     191 

ticular  territory  and  connect  particular  districts. 
No  road  runs  everywhere  except,  except—'' 
Here,  says  the  report,  Mr.  Webster  had  wound 
himself  up  in  a  sentence  from  which  he  was  appar- 
ently unable  to  extricate  himself— "except— '' 
"The  road  to  ruin,"  said  Mr.  Otis.  "Except  the 
road  to  ruin, ' '  said  Webster,  ' i  and  this  is  an  ad- 
ministration road,"  and  the  hall  rang  with  ap- 
plause. 

As  Webster's  countrymen  began  to  realize  more 
and  more  that  South  Carolina  was  really  in  ear- 
nest; that  a  great  political  issue  had  been  raised 
that  was  not  easily  to  be  put  down;  that  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  Union  were  really  at  stake;  and 
that  his  reply  to  Hayne  was  something  more  than 
a  fine  speech  defending  New  England,  their  eager- 
ness to  hear  him  on  this  issue  grew  apace,  and 
invitations  to  speak  came  to  him  from  many  quar- 
ters. That  from  New  York  was  accepted,  and  in 
March,  1831,  at  a  public  dinner  over  which  Chan- 
cellor Kent  presided,  Webster  again  argued  against 
nullification,  and  again  maintained  that  the  final 
arbiter  was  the  Supreme  Court.  ' '  The  general  and 
State  governments,  both  established  by  the  peo- 
ple, are  established  for  different  purposes  and  with 
different  powers.  Between  those  powers  questions 
may  arise,  and  who  shall  decide  them?  Some  pro- 
vision for  this  end  is  absolutely  necessary.  Where 
shall  it  be?  This  was  the  question  before  the  con- 
vention, and  various  schemes  were  suggested.    It 


192  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

was  foreseen  that  the  State  might  inadvertently 
pass  laws  inconsistent  with  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  or  with  acts  of  Congress.  How 
should  these  laws  be  disposed  of?  Where  shall  the 
power  of  judging,  in  cases  of  alleged  interference, 
be  lodged?  One  suggestion  in  the  convention  was 
to  make  it  an  executive  power,  and  to  lodge  it  in 
the  hands  of  the  President,  by  requiring  all  State 
laws  to  be  submitted  to  him,  that  he  might  nega- 
tive such  as  he  thought  appeared  repugnant  to  the 
general  Constitution.  ...  It  was  not  pressed. 
It  was  thought  wiser  and  safer,  on  the  whole,  to 
require  State  legislatures  and  State  judges  to  take 
an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  then  leave  the  States  at  liberty  to  pass 
whatever  laws  they  pleased;  and  if  interference, 
in  point  of  fact,  should  arise,  to  refer  the  question 
to  judicial  decision.  To  this  end,  the  judicial  power 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
made  coextensive  with  the  legislative  power.  It 
was  extendi  to  all  cases  arising  under  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  laws  of  Congress.  The  judiciary 
became  thus  possessed  of  the  authority  of  deciding, 
in  the  last  resort,  in  all  cases  of  alleged  interfer- 
ence between  the  State  laws  and  the  Constitution 
and  laws  of  Congress.     .     .     . 

"On  the  occasion  which  has  given  rise  to  this 
meeting,  the  proposition  contended  for  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  doctrine  just  stated  was  that  every  State, 
under  certain  supposed  exigencies  and  in  certain 


CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPOUNDEE     193 

supposed  cases,  might  decide  for  itself  and  act  for 
itself,  and  oppose  its  own  force  to  the  execution 
of  the  laws.  By  what  argument,  do  you  imagine, 
gentlemen,  was  such  a  proposition  maintained! 
.  .  .  As  I  understand  it,  when  put  forth  in  its 
revised  and  most  authentic  shape,  it  is  this:  that 
the  Constitution  provides  that  any  amendments 
may  be  made  to  it  which  shall  be  agreed  to  by  three 
fourths  of  the  States ;  there  is,  therefore,  to  be  noth- 
ing in  the  Constitution  to  which  three  fourths  of 
the  States  have  not  agreed.  All  this  is  true;  but 
then  comes  this  inference,  namely,  that  when  one 
State  denies  the  constitutionality  of  any  law  of 
Congress,  she  may  arrest  its  execution  as  to  her- 
self, and  keep  it  arrested,  till  the  States  can  be  con- 
sulted by  their  conventions  and  three  fourths  of 
them  shall  have  decided  that  the  law  is  constitu- 
tional. Indeed,  the  inference  is  still  stronger  than 
this;  for  State  conventions  have  no  authority  to 
construe  the  Constitution,  though  they  have  au- 
thority to  amend  it,  therefore  the  argument  must 
prove,  if  it  prove  anything,  that  when  any  one 
State  denies  that  any  particular  power  is  included 
in  the  Constitution,  it  is  to  be  considered  as  not 
included,  and  cannot  be  found  there  till  three 
fourths  of  the  States  agree  to  insert  it.     .     .     . 

"Seeing  the  true  grounds  of  the  Constitution 
thus  attacked,  I  raised  my  voice  in  its  favor,  I  must 
confess  with  no  preparation  or  previous  intention. 
I  can  hardly  say  that  I  embarked  in  the  contest 


194  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

from  a  sense  of  duty.  It  was  an  instantaneous  im- 
pulse of  inclination,  not  acting  against  duty,  I  trust, 
but  hardly  waiting  for  its  suggestion.  .  .  . 
Gentlemen,  I  have  true  pleasure  in  saying  that  I 
trust  the  crisis  has  in  some  measure  passed  by. 
The  doctrine  of  nullification  has  received  a  severe 
and  stern  rebuke  from  public  opinion." 

The  rebuke,  unhappily,  went  unheeded ;  the  crisis 
had  in  no  sense  passed  away,  for  the  spirit  of  nul- 
lification rose  higher  and  higher  with  each  suc- 
ceeding month.  State  Eights  and  Free  Trade  as- 
sociations were  formed  over  all  South  Carolina;  a 
great  celebration  was  held  by  the  State  Rights  and 
Free  Trade  party  at  Charleston  on  the  Fourth  of 
July,  1831 ;  and  a  convention  at  Columbia  just  be- 
fore Congress  met  in  December,  and  a  convention 
of  delegates  from  the  State  Rights  and  Free  Trade 
associations  at  Charleston  on  Washington's  Birth- 
day, 1832.  The  meaning  of  these  demonstrations 
was  not  misunderstood.  Congress  made  haste  to 
offer  concessions,  and  in  July,  1832,  passed  an  act 
altering  and  amending  the  tariff  law  of  1828— the 
"tariff  of  abominations."  But  it  was  far  from 
what  South  Carolina  demanded ;  it  was  still  a  tariff 
for  protection,  and  in  October  her  legislature  called 
a  convention  which,  it  was  understood,  would  nul- 
lify the  tariff  laws.  Meanwhile  Calhoun  once  more 
came  forward  to  explain  the  right  and  duty  of  the 
State  to  take  such  action.  In  the  course  of  the  pre- 
vious summer  he  had  written  and  published  in  a 


CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPOUNDER     195 

newspaper  an  "Address  to  the  People  of  South 
Carolina,"  in  which  the  doctrine  of  State  Rights 
and  the  relation  of  the  States  to  the  federal  gov- 
ernment was  reargued.  Governor  Hamilton  had 
never  read  a  word  of  the  address,  though  it  had 
been  before  the  people  for  over  a  year;  but  now, 
when  some  excuse  must  be  found  for  another  paper 
by  the  Vice-President,  the  Governor  found  time 
to  read  it  through,  and  wrote  to  urge  its  author  to 
state  his  doctrine  with  more  detail.  Calhoun  con- 
sented, and  the  letter  was  at  once  made  public. 

The  moment  Webster  read  it  he  determined  to 
reply,  and  as  the  Vice-President  had  put  his  argu- 
ment in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  the  Governor  of 
South  Carolina,  a  leading  milliner,  Webster  de- 
cided to  put  his  argument  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
to  Chancellor  Kent,  a  great  expounder  of  the  Con- 
stitution. "Mr.  Calhoun,  as  you  are  doubtless 
aware,"  he  wrote  the  chancellor,  "has  published  a 
labored  defense  of  nullification  in  the  form  of  a 
letter  to  Governor  Hamilton.  It  is  far  the  ablest 
and  most  plausible,  and  therefore  the  most  dan- 
gerous, vindication  of  that  particular  form  of  revo- 
lution which  has  yet  appeared.  In  the  silence  of 
abler  pens,  and  seeing,  as  I  think  I  do,  that  the 
affairs  of  this  government  are  rapidly  approach- 
ing a  crisis,  I  have  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to  answer 
Mr.  Calhoun;  and  as  he  adopted  the  form  of  a 
letter  in  which  he  put  forth  his  opinions,  I  think 
of  giving  my  answer  a  similar  form.    The  object 


196  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

of  this  is  to  ask  your  permission  to  address  my 
letter  to  you.  I  propose  to  feign  that  I  have  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  you  calling  my  attention  to 
Mr.  Calhoun's  publication,  and  then,  in  answer  to 
such  supposed  letter,  to  proceed  to  review  his  whole 
argument  at  some  length,  not  in  the  style  of  a 
speech,  but  in  that  of  cool,  constitutional,  and  legal 
discussion.  If  you  feel  no  repugnance  to  be  thus 
written  to,  I  will  be  obliged  to  you  for  your  assent. ' ' 

The  chancellor  readily  assented.  "I  shall  deem 
it  an  honor,"  said  he,  "to  be  addressed  by  you 
while  engaged  in  the  investigation  of  such  an  in- 
teresting subject.  .  .  .  The  crisis  is  indeed 
portentous  and  frightful.  We  are  threatened  with 
destruction  all  around  us,  and  we  seem  to  be  fast 
losing  our  original  good  sense  and  virtue.  .  .  . 
If  we  are  to  be  saved,  we  shall  be  largely  indebted 
to  you."  To  write  the  letter  at  once  was  not  pos- 
sible. "I  cannot,"  said  Webster,  "complete  the 
paper  before  the  election." 

But  there  was  one  other  man  whose  opinion  on 
the  question  of  nullification  was  much  more  impor- 
tant just  then  than  was  the  opinion  of  Calhoun, 
and  that  man  was  the  President.  Suppose  South 
Carolina  were  to  carry  out  her  threat  and  actually 
nullify  the  tariff  acts,  would  the  President  execute 
those  laws?  Would  he  have  the  duties  collected 
at  the  port  of  Charleston?  Webster  was  inclined 
to  think  he  might  not.  In  a  recent  veto  message 
Jackson  had  said:  "Each  public  officer  who  takes 


CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPOUNDER     197 

an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  swears  that 
he  will  support  it  as  he  understands  it,  and  not  as 
it  is  understood  by  others."  Taking  this  for  a 
text,  Webster  told  the  National  Republicans  assem- 
bled in  convention  at  "Worcester  in  October,  1832, 
that  "the  general  adoption  of  the  sentiments  ex- 
pressed in  this  sentence  would  dissolve  our  govern- 
ment. It  would  raise  every  man's  private  opinions 
into  a  standard  for  his  own  conduct.  .  .  .  Mr. 
President,  how  is  it  possible  that  a  sentiment  so 
wild  and  so  dangerous,  so  encouraging  to  all  who 
feel  a  desire  to  oppose  the  laws  and  to  impair  the 
Constitution,  should  have  been  uttered  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  at  this  eventful  and 
critical  moment?  Are  we  not  threatened  with  dis-,r 
solution  of  the  Union?  Are  we  not  told  that  the 
laws  of  the  government  shall  be  openly  and  di- 
rectly resisted?  Is  not  the  country  looking  with 
the  utmost  anxiety  to  what  may  be  the  result  of 
these  threatened  courses?  .  .  .  Mr.  President, 
I  have  very  little  regard  for  the  law  or  the  logic  of 
nullification.  But  there  is  not  an  individual  in  its 
ranks  capable  of  putting  two  ideas  together  who, 
if  you  will  grant  him  the  principles  of  the  veto 
message,  cannot  defend  all  that  nullification  has 
ever  threatened. 

i  i  To  make  this  assertion  good,  sir,  let  us  see  how 
the  case  stands.  The  legislature  of  South  Caro- 
lina, it  is  said,  will  nullify  the  late  revenue  or  tariff 
law  because  they  say  it  is  not  warranted  by  the 


198  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  they  under- 
stand the  Constitution.  They,  as  well  as  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  have  sworn  to  support 
the  Constitution.  Both  he  and  they  have  taken  the 
same  oath  in  the  same  words.  Now,  sir,  since  he 
claims  the  right  to  interpret  the  Constitution  as  he 
pleases,  how  can  he  deny  the  same  right  to  them? 
.  .  .  How  can  he  answer  them  when  they  tell 
him  that  the  revenue  laws  are  unconstitutional  as 
they  understand  the  Constitution,  and  that,  there- 
fore, they  will  nullify  them?  .  .  .  Sir,  the 
President  of  the  United  States  is  of  opinion  that  an 
individual  called  on  to  execute  a  law  may  himself 
judge  of  its  constitutional  validity.  Does  nullifica- 
tion teach  anything  more  revolutionary  than  that? 
The  President  is  of  opinion  that  judicial  interpre- 
tations of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  do  not  bind 
the  consciences  and  ought  not  to  bind  the  conduct 
of  men.  Is  nullification  at  all  more  disorganizing 
than  that?  The  President  is  of  opinion  that  every 
officer  is  bound  to  support  the  Constitution  only 
according  to  what  ought  to  be,  in  his  private  opin- 
ion, its  construction.  Has  nullification,  in  its  wild- 
est flight,  ever  reached  to  an  extravagance  like  that? 
No,  sir,  never.  .  .  .  But  let  me  ask,  sir,  what 
evidence  there  is  that  the  President  is  himself  op- 
posed to  the  doctrines  of  nullification— I  do  not 
say  to  the  political  party  which  now  pushes  these 
doctrines,  but  to  the  doctrines  themselves.  Has  he 
anywhere  rebuked  them?     Has  he  anywhere  dis- 


CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPOUNDER      199 

couraged  them!  Has  his  influence  been  exerted  to 
inspire  respect  for  the  Constitution,  and  to  produce 
obedience  to  laws  ?  .  .  .  Alas,  sir,  we  have  seen 
nothing,  nothing  of  all  this.  .  .  .  Now,  sir, 
I  think  it  exceedingly  probable  that  the  President 
may  come  to  an  open  rupture  with  that  portion  of 
his  original  party  which  now  constitutes  what  is 
called  the  Nullification  party.  I  think  it  likely  he 
will  oppose  the  proceedings  of  that  party  if  they 
shall  adopt  measures  coming  directly  in  conflict 
with  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  But  how  will 
he  oppose?  .  .  .  How  will  the  President  at- 
tempt to  put  down  nullification,  if  he  shall  attempt 
it  at  all?  We  are  told,  sir,  that  the  President  will 
immediately  employ  the  military  force,  and  at  once 
blockade  Charleston.  .  .  .  For  one,  sir,  I  raise 
my  voice  beforehand  against  the  unauthorized  em- 
ployment of  military  power,  and  against  supersed- 
ing the  authority  of  the  laws  by  an  armed  force, 
under  pretense  of  putting  down  nullification.  The 
President  has  no  authority  to  blockade  Charleston ; 
the  President  has  no  authority  to  employ  military 
force  till  he  shall  be  duly  required  so  to  do  by 
law  and  by  the  civil  authorities.  His  duty  is  to 
cause  the  laws  to  be  executed.  His  duty  is  to  sup- 
port the  civil  authority." 

The  one  way  to  put  down  nullification,  Webster 
believed,  was  to  defeat  the  reelection  of  Jackson, 
"and  place  the  government  in  the  hands  of  its 
friends."    But  Jackson  was  not  defeated,  and  on 


200  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

him  lay  the  burden  of  dealing  with  practical,  not 
theoretical,  nullification.  The  legislature  of  South 
Carolina  called  a  State  convention;  the  convention 
declared  that  the  tariff  acts  of  182S  and  1832  were 
null  and  void,  and  fixed  the  1st  of  February,  1833, 
as  the  day  on  and  after  which  they  should  no 
longer  be  "  binding  on  this  State,  its  officers  or 
citizens.' '  The  legislature  then  made  all  prepara- 
tions necessary  to  put  nullification  into  effect, 
and  what  had  so  often  been  threatened,  so  many 
times  discussed,  and  so  little  really  feared  seemed 
certain  to  happen  at  the  end  of  January. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   ENCOUNTEK   WITH    CALHOUN 

SOUTH  Carolina  having  done  her  part,  it  was 
now  for  the  federal  government  to  make  the 
next  move,  and  the  Executive,  with  characteristic 
energy,  moved  quickly.  The  annual  message  in 
December,  1832,  contained  hut  one  short  para- 
graph on  affairs  in  South  Carolina,  and  the  tone 
of  what  was  said  was  hailed  by  the  nulliners  as  con- 
ciliatory to  them,  and  as  a  sure  indication  that  the 
President  had  no  thought  of  using  force.  Adams 
described  it  as  going  "to  dissolve  the  Union  into 
its  original  elements'';  as  "a  complete  surrender 
to  the  nulliners  of  South  Carolina."  Clay  called 
it  "ultra  on  the  side  of  State  Rights."  But  ere  a 
week  went  by  the  President  followed  up  the  mes- 
sage with  a  proclamation  which  astonished  both 
friends  and  foes  alike,  and  left  neither  his  opin- 
ions nor  his  intentions  any  longer  in  doubt.  ' l  The 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,"  said  Jackson 
to  the  followers  of  Hayne  and  Calhoun,  "forms 
a  government,  not  a  league;  and  whether  it  be 
formed  by  compact  between  the  States  or  in  any 
other  manner,  its  character  is  the  same.  .  .  . 
I  consider  the  power  to  annul  a  law  of  the  United 

201 


202  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

States  incompatible  with  the  existence  of  the 
Union,  contradicted  expressly  by  the  letter  of  the 
Constitution,  and  destructive  of  the  great  object 
for  which  it  was  formed.  To  say  that  any  State 
may  at  pleasure  secede  from  the  Union  is  to  say 
that  the  United  States  are  not  a  nation.' '  Lan- 
guage of  this  sort  contained  the  very  essence  of 
the  reply  to  Hayne,  and  the  moment  Webster  read 
it  he  determined  to  uphold  any  vigorous  measure 
Jackson  might  propose.  When  the  proclamation 
reached  Boston,  a  great  meeting  to  denounce  nul- 
lification was  about  to  be  held  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
and  to  the  men  so  gathered  Webster  consented  to 
speak  on  the  subject  of  the  proclamation.  "Hav- 
ing been  detained  at  home  a  few  days  after  the 
meeting  of  Congress,' '  said  he,  "by  the  necessity 
of  attending  to  some  private  affairs,  I  have  been 
induced  to  delay  my  departure  for  another  day, 
that  I  might  be  present  at  this  meeting  of  my  fel- 
low-citizens. ...  I  regard  the  issuing  of  this 
proclamation  by  the  President  as  a  highly  im- 
portant occurrence.  .  .  .  Mr.  Chairman,  the 
general  principles  of  the  proclamation  are  such  as 
I  entirely  approve.  I  esteem  them  to  be  the  true 
principles  of  the  Constitution.  It  must  now  be 
apparent  to  every  man  that  this  doctrine  of  nulli- 
fication means  resistance  to  the  laws,  by  force. 
It  is  but  another  name  for  civil  war.  The  Presi- 
dent has  declared  that  in  meeting  the  exigencies  of 
this  crisis  it  is  his  determination  to  execute  the 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  CALHOUN    203 

laws,  to  preserve  the  Union  by  all  constitutional 
means,  to  arrest,  if  possible,  by  moderate  but  fair 
measures,  the  necessity  of  a  recourse  to  force. 
.  .  .  In  all  this  I  most  cordially  concur,"  and 
"in  this  way  of  meeting  the  crisis  I  shall  give 
the  President  my  entire  and  cordial  support. 
.  .  .  Our  only  alternative  is  to  preserve  the 
Union  one  and  entire,  as  it  now  is,  or  else  to  break 
up  and  return  to  the  condition  of  separate  States, 
with  the  unpromising  chance  of  forming  here- 
after new,  partial,  sectional,  rival,  perhaps  hostile 
governments,  thus  bidding  adieu  forever,  not  only 
to  the  glorious  idea,  but  to  the  glorious  reality  of 
the  United  States  of  America. " 

In  South  Carolina  the  proclamation  was  received 
with  indignation  and  contempt  by  the  people  and 
the  press,  was  answered,  at  the  request  of  the 
legislature,  by  Hayne  (now  governor  in  place  of 
Hamilton),  by  the  election  of  Calhoun  to  the 
United  States  Senate  in  place  of  Hayne,  and  by 
the  passage  of  such  acts  as  were  necessary  to  put 
nullification  into  effect.  The  proclamation  had 
fallen  on  deaf  ears,  and  no  hope  of  a  peaceable  set- 
tlement remaining,  Jackson,  about  the  middle  of 
January,  1833,  asked  for  authority  to  collect  the 
revenue  in  South  Carolina  by  force  if  necessary— 
a  request  to  which  the  Senate  responded  with  the 
Revenue  Collection  Bill— the  "Force  Act"  or 
"Bloody  Bill,"  as  the  milliners  called  it.  In  the 
opinions  of  the  State  Rights  men,  this  bill  was  the 


204  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

worst  that  had  ever  been  reported  by  a  committee 
to  the  Senate.  It  struck  down  the  States,  made  a 
dictator  of  the  President,  and  repealed  the  Con- 
stitution, the  true  meaning  of  which  Calhoun  now 
explained  in  three  resolutions.  The  people  of  the 
several  States  composing  these  United  States,  so 
read  the  first  resolution,  are  united  as  parties  to 
a  constitutional  compact,  to  which  each  State  ac- 
ceded as  a  separate  sovereign  community,  and  the 
union  of  which  the  compact  is  the  bond  is  a  union 
between  the  States  that  have  ratified  it. 

The  second  declared  that  the  people  of  the  sev- 
eral States  in  thus  creating  a  general  government 
delegated  to  it  certain  definite  powers,  reserving, 
each  State  to  itself,  the  residuary  mass  of  powers ; 
that  whenever  the  general  government  assumes 
the  exercise  of  powers  not  delegated  by  the  com- 
pact, its  acts  are  of  no  effect;  and  that,  as  in  all 
other  cases  of  compact  without  any  common  judge, 
each  has  the  right  to  judge  for  itself  as  well  of  the 
infraction  as  of  the  mode  and  measure  of  redress. 

The  third  aimed  directly  at  the  proclamation, 
declared  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  did 
not  form  a  nation,  that  the  States  had  not  surren- 
dered their  sovereignty,  that  the  citizens  of  the 
States  had  not  transferred  their  allegiance  to  the 
general  government,  and  that  all  assertions  to  the 
contrary  were  without  foundation  in  truth  and  con- 
trary to  the  most  certain  historical  facts  and  the 
clearest  deductions  of  reason. 


THE   ENCOUNTER   WITH  CALHOUN   205 

The  resolutions  having  been  printed  and  then 
laid  on  the  table,  debate  on  the  ' '  Bloody  Bill ' '  was 
resumed.  As  the  discussion  went  on  day  after  day 
for  two  weeks,  the  fact  became  clear  that  even  the 
steadfast  friends  of  the  President  could  not  be 
relied  on  to  support  the  measure.  They  opposed 
it  bitterly,— nay,  denounced  it,  as  Webster  said, 
' '  with  the  same  vehemence  as  they  used  to  do  when 
they  raised  their  patriotic  voices  against  what  they 
called  a  *  coalition.'  "  It  smelled,  they  declared, 
like  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws,  was  as  bad  as  the 
Boston  Port  Bill,  brought  back  the  horrors  of  the 
Jersey  prison-ships,  made  the  President  sole  judge 
of  the  Constitution,  sacrificed  everything  to  arbi- 
trary power,  and  was  worse  than  the  Botany  Bay 
Law  of  Great  Britain.  The  party  of  Jackson,  in 
short,  was  in  revolt,  and  the  President  at  this  crisis 
turned  to  Webster  for  support.  Members  of  Con- 
gress urged  him  to  defend  the  bill,  and  when  he 
seemed  indifferent,  one  of  the  cabinet  called  at  his 
lodgings  and  asked  for  his  help.  To  this,  appeal 
he  complied,  and  a  few  days  later,  in  the  Senate, 
took  occasion  to  say  that  he  would  support  the 
measure  as  an  independent  member  "discharging 
the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience. ' '  "I  am, ' '  said 
he, ' l  no  man 's  leader ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  I  fol- 
low no  lead  but  that  of  public  duty  and  the  star 
of  the  Constitution.  I  believe  the  country  is  in 
considerable  danger;  I  believe  an  unlawful  combi- 
nation threatens  the  integrity  of  the  Union.     .     .     . 

12 


206  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

I  think  the  people  of  the  United  States  demand  of 
us,  who  are  intrusted  with  the  government,  to  main- 
tain that  government.  .  .  .  For  one,  I  obey 
this  public  voice ;  I  comply  with  this  demand  of  the 
people.  I  support  the  administration  in  measures 
which  I  believe  to  be  necessary ;  and  while  pursu- 
ing this  course  I  look  unhesitatingly,  and  with  the 
utmost  confidence,  for  the  approbation  of  the 
country. ' ' 

This  alliance  of  Webster  with  the  Jackson  party 
was  of  serious  importance.  It  was  now  certain 
that  in  the  struggle  over  the  Force  Bill  he  would 
bear  a  part ;  and,  with  the  recollection  of  the  debate 
with  Hayne  fresh  in  memory,  the  followers  of  Cal- 
houn looked  forward  to  the  contest  with  uneasiness. 
No  other  man  in  the  Senate,  save  Clay,  then  ap- 
proached Webster  in  influence  with  the  people; 
and  to  Clay  Calhoun  now  turned  for  assistance, 
which  the  great  Kentuckian  proved  only  too  will- 
ing to  give.  He  would  not  speak  for  the  bill;  he 
would  not  vote  for  it ;  he  would  not  do  anything  to 
strengthen  the  hands  or  add  to  the  prestige  of  the 
man  who  believed  in  the  coalition,  who  had  pro- 
scribed the  friends  of  "Harry  of  the  West,"  and 
had  defeated  him  so  overwhelmingly  in  the  elec- 
tion just  passed.  But,  worse  than  all,  the  father  of 
the  American  System,  the  great  apostle  of  protec- 
tion, would  yield  to  South  Carolina,  and  had  in  his 
desk  the  draft  of  a  bill  designed  to  abandon  the 
protective  system,  yield  every  point  South  Caro- 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH   CALHOUN    209 

lina  demanded,  and  reduce  the  tariff  to  a  revenue 
basis.  This  bill  Clay  introduced  soon  after  his  in- 
terview with  Calhoun. 

With  Clay  thus  silenced  and  committed  to  the 
course  of  the  nullifiers,  but  two  of  the  great  tri- 
umvirate remained  to  contend,  the  one  for  "our 
country,  our  whole  country,  and  nothing  but  our 
country";  the  other  for  nullification,  secession,  and 
disunion.  Calhoun  opened  the  contest,  and  Web- 
ster followed  with  the  speech  known  in  his  collected 
works  as ' '  The  Constitution  not  a  Compact  between 
the  States." 

We  are  told  that  as  Webster  was  about  to  leave 
his  lodgings  to  make  that  speech,  the  carriage  of 
the  President  drew  up  at  the  door,  that  the  pri- 
vate secretary  of  Jackson  stepped  out,  delivered  a 
message,  and  then  drove  the  senator  to  the  Capitol 
steps.  But  how  changed  the  scene  from  those 
memorable  days  three  years  before!  No  citizens 
streamed  with  hasty  steps  from  every  street  and 
avenue.  No  crowd  blocked  the  entrance,  filled 
every  aisle  and  gallery  and  lined  the  walls  of  that 
little  chamber  associated  with  so  much  that  is  dra- 
matic in  our  history.  Calhoun  was  to  continue  his 
speech  of  the  day  before,  a  performance  which  had 
greatly  disappointed  his  friends.  Never  at  any 
time  had  he  been  considered  an  orator,  and  long 
absence  from  legislative  halls  had  dulled  what  lit- 
tle power  as  a  speaker  he  once  possessed.  More 
than  fifteen  years  had  rolled  by  since  he  accepted 


210  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

the  place  of  Secretary  of  War  under  Monroe,  and 
in  all  that  time  Calhoun  had  addressed  no  legisla- 
tive body.  He  was,  says  one  who  now  heard  him, 
quite  unfit  for  long  and  sustained  effort  by  reason 
of  the  intensity  of  his  feelings,  a  lack  of  physical 
power,  and  a  weak  voice.  He  was  hoarse  and  in- 
distinct in  utterance.  Calhoun  finished  a  little  be- 
fore one  o'clock,  and  a  moment  later  Webster 
secured  the  floor,  and  spoke  for  two  hours  and  a 
half,  when  the  Senate  took  a  recess  till  five  o  'clock. 
Meantime  the  news  that  Webster  was  answering 
Calhoun  spread  through  the  city,  and  when  the 
Senate  reassembled  the  chamber  was  "crowded  to 
suffocation."  The  House  had  adjourned  for  the 
day,  and  the  members  were  now  to  be  seen  seated 
among  the  senators.  Citizens  eager  to  hear  a  great 
speech  had  hurried  to  the  room  with  wives  and 
daughters,  had  filled  every  available  inch  of  space, 
and  furnished  an  audience  far  different  from  that 
of  two  hours  before.  From  five  till  eight  o'clock, 
when  the  speech  ended,  Webster  spoke  with  much 
of  his  old  power,  carried  his  listeners  with  him,  and 
when  he  closed,  "a  long,  loud,  and  general  clapping 
of  hands  rose  from  the  floor  and  galleries."  The 
cause  was  greater  than  any  ever  before  put  on  trial. 
The  preservation  of  the  Union,  the  success  of  demo- 
cratic government,  the  ability  of  a  people  spread 
over  half  a  continent  to  rule  themselves,  was  to  be 
decided  once  and  forever.  Reject  the  Force  Bill, 
and  government  by  the  many  was  supplanted  by 


THE   ENCOUNTER  WITH  CALHOUN    211 

the  rule  of  a  few;  the  Constitution  was  degraded 
from  an  instrument  of  government  to  the  contract 
of  a  league,  and  the  Republic  of  the  United  States 
was  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  a  nation.  Pass 
the  Force  Bill,  and  the  supremacy  of  law  was  up- 
held firmly,  nullification  was  brought  down  from  a 
peaceful  remedy  to  a  revolutionary  right,  and  the 
Union  made  stronger  than  ever.  Webster  began 
by  saying:  "I  shall  not,  Mr.  President,  follow  the 
gentleman  step  by  step  through  the  course  of  his 
speech.  Much  of  what  he  has  said  he  has  deemed 
necessary  to  the  just  explanation  of  his  own  po- 
litical character  and  conduct.  On  this  I  shall  offer 
no  comment.  .  .  .  But  the  gentleman's  speech 
made  a  few  days  ago,  when  introducing  his  resolu- 
tions, those  resolutions  themselves,  and  parts  of 
his  speech  just  now  concluded  may  probably  be 
justly  regarded  as  comprising  the  whole  South 
Carolina  doctrine.  I  shall  not  consent,  sir,  to  make 
any  new  Constitution,  or  to  establish  another  form 
of  government.  I  will  not  undertake  to  say  what 
a  constitution  for  these  United  States  ought  to  be. 
That  question  the  people  have  decided  for  them- 
selves, and  I  shall  take  the  instrument  as  they  have 
established  it,  and  shall  endeavor  to  maintain  it,  in 
its  plain  sense  and  meaning,  against  opinions  and 
notions  which,  in  my  judgment,  threaten  its  sub- 
version. 

' '  The  first  two  resolutions  of  the  honorable  gen- 
tleman affirm  these  propositions,  viz. : 


212  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

"1.  That  the  political  compact  under  which  we 
live,  and  under  which  Congress  is  now  assembled, 
is  a  compact  to  which  the  people  of  the  several 
States,  as  separate  and  sovereign  communities,  are 
the  parties. 

"2.  That  these  sovereign  parties  have  a  right  to 
judge,  each  for  itself,  of  any  alleged  violation  of 
the  Constitution  by  Congress,  and,  in  case  of  such 
violation,  to  choose,  each  for  itself,  its  own  mode 
and  measure  of  redress. 

"It  is  true,  sir,  that  the  honorable  member  calls 
this  a  ' constitutional'  compact,  but  still  he  affirms 
it  to  be  a  compact  between  sovereign  States.  .  .  . 
Sir,  I  must  say  to  the  honorable  gentleman  that  in 
our  American  political  grammar  '  constitution '  is  a 
noun  substantive;  it  imparts  a  clear  and  distinct 
idea  of  itself;  and  it  is  not  to  lose  its  importance 
and  dignity,  it  is  not  to  be  turned  into  a  poor,  am- 
biguous, senseless,  unmeaning  adjective  for  the 
purpose  of  accommodating  any  new  set  of  political 
notions.  Sir,  we  reject  his  new  rules  of  syntax  alto- 
gether. We  will  not  give  up  our  forms  of  political 
speech  to  the  grammarians  of  the  school  of  nulli- 
fication. By  the  Constitution  we  mean  not  a  '  con- 
stitutional compact,'  but  simply  and  directly  the 
Constitution,  the  fundamental  law;  and  if  there 
be  one  word  in  the  English  language  which  the 
people  of  the  United  States  understand,  this  is  that 
word.  .  .  .  We  know  what  the  Constitution  is, 
we  know  what  the  plainly  written  fundamental  law 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  CALHOUN    213 

is,  we  know  what  the  bond  of  our  union  and  the 
security  of  our  liberty  is,  and  we  mean  to  main- 
tain and  defend  it  in  its  plain  sense  and  unsophisti- 
cated meaning.     .     .     . 

'  *  The  first  resolution  declares  that  the  people  of 
the  several  States  '  acceded '  to  the  Constitution,  or 
to  the  constitutional  compact,  as  it  is  called.  This 
word  l  accede, '  not  found  either  in  the  Constitution 
itself  or  in  the  ratification  of  it  by  any  one  of  the 
States,  has  been  chosen  for  use  here  doubtless  not 
without  a  well-considered  purpose. 

"The  natural  converse  of  accession  is  secession, 
and  therefore  when  it  is  stated  that  the  people  of 
the  States  acceded  to  the  Union,  it  may  be  more 
plausibly  argued  that  they  may  secede  from  it. 
If,  in  adopting  the  Constitution,  nothing  was  done 
but  acceding  to  a  compact,  nothing  would  seem 
necessary,  in  order  to  break  it  up,  but  to  secede 
from  the  same  compact.  But  the  term  is  wholly 
out  of  place.  .  .  .  The  people  of  the  United 
States  have  used  no  such  form  of  expression  in 
establishing  the  present  government.  They  do  not 
say  they  accede  to  a  league,  but  they  declare  they 
ordain  and  establish  a  Constitution.  Such  are  the 
very  words  of  the  instrument  itself ;  and  in  all  the 
States,  without  an  exception,  the  language  used  by 
their  conventions  was  that  they  '  ratified  the  Con- 
stitution/ .  .  .  Sir,  I  intend  to  hold  the  gen- 
tleman to  the  written  record.  In  the  discussion  of 
a  constitutional  question  I  intend  to  impose  upon 


214  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

him  the  restraints  of  constitutional  language.  The 
people  have  ordained  a  Constitution;  can  they  re- 
ject it  without  revolution?  They  have  estab- 
lished a  form  of  government;  can  they  overthrow 
it  without  revolution!  These  are  the  true  ques- 
tions.    .     .     . 

' 'The  gentleman's  resolutions,  then,  affirm  in 
effect  that  these  twenty-four  United  States  are  held 
together  only  by  a  subsisting  treaty,  resting  for 
its  fulfilment  and  continuance  on  no  inherent  power 
of  its  own,  but  on  the  plighted  faith  of  each  State. 
.  .  .  If,  sir,  this  be  our  political  condition,  it  is 
time  the  people  of  the  United  States  understood 
it.  Let  us  look  for  a  moment  to  the  practical  con- 
sequences of  these  opinions.  One  State,  holding 
an  embargo  law  unconstitutional,  may  declare  her 
opinion  and  withdraw  from  the  Union.  She  secedes. 
Another,  forming  and  expressing  the  same  judg- 
ment on  a  law  laying  duties  on  imports,  may  with- 
draw also.  She  secedes.  .  .  .  But,  sir,  a  third 
State  is  of  opinion  not  only  that  these  laws  of  im- 
post are  constitutional,  but  that  it  is  the  absolute 
duty  of  Congress  to  pass  and  maintain  such  laws, 
and  that  by  omitting  to  pass  and  maintain  them 
its  constitutional  obligations  would  be  grossly  dis- 
regarded, .  .  .  and  for  this  violation  of  the  Con- 
stitution she  may  threaten  to  secede  also.  Virginia 
may  secede  and  hold  the  fortresses  in  the  Chesa- 
peake. The  Western  States  may  secede,  and  take  to 
their  own  use  the  public  lands,    Louisiana  may  se- 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  CALHOUN  215 

cede  if  she  chooses,  form  a  foreign  alliance,  and 
hold  the  month  of  the  Mississippi.  If  one  State  may 
secede,  ten  may  do  so— twenty  may  do  so.  Sir,  as 
these  secessions  go  on  one  after  another,  what  is  to 
constitute  the  United  States?  Whose  will  be  the 
army!  Whose  the  navy?  Who  will  pay  the  debts? 
Who  fulfil  the  public  treaties?  Who  perform  the 
constitutional  guarantees?  Who  govern  this  Dis- 
trict and  the  Territories?  Who  retain  the  public 
property?  .  .  .  This,  sir,  is  practical  nullifi- 
cation. 

"And  now,  sir,  against  all  these  theories  and 
opinions  I  maintain: 

"1.  That  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
is  not  a  league,  confederacy,  or  compact  between 
the  people  of  the  several  States  in  their  sovereign 
capacities,  but  a  government  proper,  founded  on 
the  adoption  of  the  people  and  creating  direct  re- 
lations between  itself  and  individuals. 

"2.  That  no  State  authority  has  power  to  dis- 
solve these  relations,  that  nothing  can  dissolve 
them  but  revolution,  and  that  consequently  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  secession  without  revo- 
lution. 

"3.  That  there  is  a  supreme  law,  consisting  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  acts  of  Con- 
gress passed  in  pursuance  of  it,  and  treaties;  and 
that  in  cases  not  capable  of  assuming  the  character 
of  a  suit  in  law  or  equity,  Congress  must  judge  of 
and  finally  interpret  this  supreme  law  so  often  as 


216  DANIEL  WEBSTEE 

it  has  occasion  to  pass  acts  of  legislation;  and  in 
cases  capable  of  assuming,  and  actually  assuming, 
the  character  of  a  suit,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  is  the  final  interpreter. 

"4.  That  an  attempt  by  a  State  to  abrogate, 
annul,  or  nullify  an  act  of  Congress,  or  to  arrest 
its  operation  within  her  limits,  on  the  ground  that, 
in  her  opinion,  such  law  is  unconstitutional,  is  a 
direct  usurpation  on  the  just  powers  of  the  general 
government,  and  on  the  equal  rights  of  other 
States,  a  plain  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and 
a  proceeding  essentially  revolutionary  in  its  char- 
acter and  tendency.' ' 

These  four  propositions  having  thus  been  plainly 
stated,  Webster  plunged  into  a  long  and  careful 
argument  in  support  of  them.  The  bursts  of  rhet- 
oric, the  sarcasm,  the  personal  allusions,  the  dra- 
matic episodes  which  marked  his  two  replies  to 
Hayne,  were  wanting.  The  speech  was  such  as 
might  well  have  been  addressed  to  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  was  without  doubt  but  an  elaboration 
of  the  letter  he  had  intended  to  address  to  Chan- 
cellor Kent  in  reply  to  the  letter  of  Calhoun  to 
Governor  Hamilton.  That  concessions  of  some 
kind  must  be  made  to  South  Carolina  was  generally 
admitted  in  both  houses  of  Congress,  and  a  bill 
to  accomplish  this  end  was  reported  to  the  House 
at  the  close  of  December.  The  existing  tariff  was  to 
be  swept  away,  duties  were  to  be  brought  down  to 
the  rates  of  the  tariff  of  1816,  and,  as  the  members 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  CALHOUN    217 

of  Congress  well  knew,  the  bill  was  an  adminis- 
tration measure.  But  in  February,  while  the 
House  was  toiling  earnestly  to  come  to  an  agree- 
ment on  the  bill  before  the  session  should  close  on 
the  4th  of  March,  Clay,  to  the  amazement  of  his 
friends,  brought  before  the  Senate  a  compromise 
bill  of  his  own.  As  passed,— for  pass  it  did,— the 
act  provided  that  all  existing  duties  should  be  re- 
duced to  an  ad  valorem  basis ;  that  such  as  exceeded 
twenty  per  cent,  should  be  so  reduced  that  the  ex- 
cess should  be  diminished  one  tenth  on  September 
30,  1833,  and  one  tenth  on  September  30,  1835, 
1837,  and  1839;  that  one  half  of  the  remainder 
should  be  removed  on  September  30,  1841,  and  an- 
other half  in  1842,  when  there  would  thus  be  estab- 
lished a  horizontal  tariff  of  twenty  per  cent,  ad 
valorem  on  all  dutiable  goods.  The  free  list  was 
much  increased,  the  credit  system  was  abolished, 
all  duties  were  to  be  paid  in  cash,  and  valuation  at 
the  port  of  entry  was  required.  Such  a  bill  from 
such  a  man;  such  duties  from  "the  father  of  the 
American  System,"  the  champion  of  protection, 
took  the  country  by  surprise.  "Mr.  Clay's  new 
tariff  project,"  said  one  advocate  of  protection, 
"will  be  received  like  a  crash  of  thunder  in  the 
winter  season,  and  some  will  hardly  trust  the  evi- 
dence of  their  senses  on  a  first  examination  of  it, 
so  radical  and  sudden  is  the  change  of  policy  pro- 
posed." 

So  astonished  was  the  Senate  that  the  bill  was 


218  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

not  allowed  to  go  to  a  committee,  but  was  merely 
ordered  to  be  printed.  This  delay  afforded  Web- 
ster time  to  express  his  dissent  in  a  set  of  reso- 
lutions. In  substance  they  were  that  the  annual 
revenue  of  the  country  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to 
exceed  the  needs  of  the  government ;  that  as  soon  as 
it  was  certain  that  the  duties  imposed  by  the  tariff 
act  of  1832  would  yield  an  excess  of  revenue  they 
ought  to  be  reduced ;  that  in  making  this  reduction 
it  was  not  wise  to  proceed  by  way  of  an  equal  re- 
duction per  centum  on  all  articles;  but  that  the 
amount  as  well  as  the  time  ought  to  be  fixed  in  re- 
spect to  the  several  articles  distinctly,  having  due 
regard  to  the  questions  how  far  such  reduction 
would  affect  revenue,  how  far  those  domestic  man- 
ufactures hitherto  protected,  and  how  far  the  rate 
of  wages  and  the  earnings  of  the  American  work- 
ingman;  that  it  was  unwise  and  injudicious,  in 
laying  import  dues,  to  limit  all  dues  to  one  equal 
rate  per  centum,  and  that  since  all  power  to  protect 
home  manufactures  by  commercial  regulations  or 
import  duties  had  been  taken  from  the  States  and 
given  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  no  law 
ought  to  be  passed  giving  any  pledge,  express  or 
implied,  or  giving  any  assurance,  direct  or  indi- 
rect, tending  to  restrain  Congress  from  at  any  time 
giving  reasonable  protection  to  American  industry. 
Having  presented  his  resolutions,  Webster  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  say  something  in  their  defense, 
but  yielded  in  order  that  the  debate  on  the  Eevenue 


WEBSTER  S    HOl'SE    IN    SUMMER    ST.,    BOSTON. 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  CALHOUN    221 

Collection  Bill  might  be  continued.  "What  he  said 
later  was  brief,  of  little  importance,  and  soon  for- 
gotten. But  the  reply  to  Calhoun  was  not  forgot- 
ten. It  was  hailed  with  delight  by  every  lover  of 
the  Union,  raised  Webster  still  higher  in  popular 
esteem,  and  pleased  no  one  so  much  as  Jackson. 
Writing  to  his  friend  Poinsett  the  day  after  its 
delivery,  the  President  said :  ' '  Mr.  Webster  replied 
to  Calhoun  yesterday,  and,  it  is  said,  demolished 
him.  It  is  believed  by  more  than  one  that  Mr.  C. 
is  in  a  state  of  dementation ;  his  speech  was  a  per- 
fect failure,  and  Mr.  Webster  handled  him  like  a 
child.' '  He  was  thanked  by  the  President  person- 
ally, praised  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  when, 
in  the  summer  of  1833,  he  set  off  on  a  pleasure  trip 
to  the  West,  his  journey  was  one  long  ovation. 
Everywhere  he  was  welcomed  as  "the  champion 
of  the  Constitution. ' '  That  actual  nullification  by 
a  State  of  an  act  of  Congress  should  be  met  firmly 
and,  if  need  be,  put  down  by  force  was  generally 
approved.  But  it  was  equally  necessary  that  the 
meaning  of  the  Constitution  should  be  made  quite 
plain,  that  the  doctrine  of  nullification  should  be 
refuted,  that  the  right  to  use  force  should  be  up- 
held; and  this  service  Webster,  in  the  opinion  of 
his  countrymen,  had  rendered  in  a  most  signal 
manner.  At  Utica  the  citizens  forgot  political  dif- 
ferences in  their  eagerness  to  meet  him.  At  Buf- 
falo a  public  dinner  was  tendered,  an  address  was 
delivered  by  the  merchants  and  manufacturers; 


222  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

and  some  months  later  he  received  from  the  me- 
chanics of  the  town  a  fine  black-walnut  table  as  a 
token  of  appreciation.  He  was  present  at  the 
launching  of  a  steamboat  bearing  his  name,  and 
went  in  her  to  Cleveland,  where  he  turned  south- 
ward. 

At  Columbus  another  dinner  was  declined,  but 
at  Cincinnati  he  was  forced  to  accept  a  like  invi- 
tation, and  was  toasted  as  * '  The  Daniel  of  his  age 
—He  may  be  cast  among  lions,  as  many  as  you 
please,  but  even  then  you  will  find  him  the  master 
spirit ' ' ;  as  he  ' '  Who  yesterday  came  among  a  com- 
munity of  strangers,  and  to-morrow  leaves  a  com- 
munity of  friends ' ' ;  as  "  The  profound  expounder 
of  the  Constitution,  the  eloquent  supporter  of  the 
Federal  Union,  and  the  uniform  friend  and  advo- 
cate of  the  Western  country.' '  More  invitations 
to  visit  the  neighboring  State  now  came  to  him ;  but 
he  turned  eastward,  and  was  dined  and  toasted  at 
Washington  and  Pittsburg.  As  he  drew  near  the 
latter  town,  he  was  met  by  the  mayor  and  a  body 
of  citizens  on  horseback  and  escorted  to  the  Ex- 
change Hotel,  which,  says  a  contemporary  account, 
"has  been  thronged  ever  since  by  crowds  of  eager 
visitors,  without  regard  to  party,  anxious  to  see 
and  testify  respect  to  him  whom  all  unite  in  regard- 
ing as  an  intellectual  giant  on  whom  the  Constitu- 
tion itself  did  not  disdain  to  lean  at  a  moment  of 
imminent  peril.  Agreeable  to  previous  arrange- 
ment, he  was  waited  on  by  a  committee  of  forty 


THE  ENCOUNTER  WITH  CALHOUN    223 

of  our  most  respectable  citizens  to  welcome  him  to 
Pittsburg,  to  proffer  facilities  for  seeing  to  advan- 
tage whatever  he  might  deem  worthy  of  examina- 
tion, and  invite  him  to  a  public  dinner. "  This 
being  declined,  "the  idea  of  a  formal  dinner  was 
abandoned;  but  as  the  anxiety  seemed  intense  for 
some  collective  expression  of  public  admiration,  it 
was  decided  to  invite  him  to  meet  our  citizens  at 
the  spacious  grove  of  Mr.  Miltenberger  on  Mon- 
day afternoon  at  four  o  'clock,  The  change  of  plan 
was  judicious,  and  the  scene  a  truly  gratifying 
one.  Refreshments  of  a  plain  kind  were  spread 
around,  in  charge  of  the  committee,  but  the  tables 
could  serve  only  as  a  nucleus  to  the  vast  multi- 
tude. Mr.  Webster  moved  freely  about  the  beauti- 
ful grounds,  recognizing  his  numerous  visitors  of 
the  preceding  days,  who  were  led,  by  the  frank 
and  engaging  cordiality  of  his  manners,  to  become, 
in  turn,  the  introducers  of  such  as  had  not  before 
enjoyed  the  pleasure  of  taking  him  by  the  hand." 
The  speech  on  this  occasion  was  another  eulogy 
of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  another  denun- 
ciation of  the  needlessness  and  folly  of  nullifica- 
tion, and  a  defense  of  the  proclamation  and  the 
Force  Act.  The  mayor  in  introducing  him,  he  said, 
had  done  more  than  justice  to  his  efforts,  but  had 
not  overstated  the  occasion  on  which  those  efforts 
were  made.  "Gentlemen,  it  is  but  a  few  short 
months  since  dark  and  portentous  clouds  did  hang 
over  the  heavens,  and  did  shut  out,  as  it  were,  the 


224  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

sun  in  Ms  glory.  A  new  and  perilous  crisis  was 
upon  us.  .  .  .  Gentlemen,  this  was  an  alarm- 
ing moment.  In  common  with  all  good  citizens,  I 
felt  it  to  be  such.  A  general  anxiety  pervaded  the 
breasts  of  all  who  were,  at  home,  partaking  in 
the  prosperity,  honor,  and  happiness  which  the 
country  had  enjoyed.  And  how  was  it  abroad? 
Why,  gentlemen,  every  intelligent  friend  of  hu- 
man liberty,  throughout  the  world,  looked  with 
amazement  at  the  spectacle  which  we  exhibited. 
In  a  day  of  unparalleled  prosperity,  after  a  half- 
century's  most  happy  experience  of  the  bless- 
ings of  our  Union,  when  we  had  already  become 
the  wonder  of  all  the  liberal  part  of  the  world  and 
the  envy  of  the  illiberal,  when  the  Constitution 
had  so  amply  falsified  the  predictions  of  its  ene- 
mies, and  more  than  fulfilled  the  hopes  of  its 
friends;  in  a  time  of  peace,  with  an  overflowing 
treasury;  when  both  the  population  and  the  im- 
provement of  the  country  had  outrun  the  most 
sanguine  anticipation;  it  was  at  this  moment  that 
we  showed  ourselves  to  the  whole  civilized  world 
as  being  apparently  on  the  eve  of  disunion  and 
anarchy,  at  the  very  point  of  dissolving  once  and 
forever  that  Union  which  had  made  us  so  pros- 
perous and  so  great.  It  was  at  this  moment  that 
those  appeared  among  us  who  seemed  ready  to 
break  up  the  national  Constitution,  and  to  scatter 
the  twenty-four  States  into  twenty-four  uncon- 
nected communities.     .     .     . 


THE  ENCOUNTER   WITH  CALHOUN  225 

"Gentlemen,  I  hope  that  the  result  of  that  ex- 
periment may  prove  salutary  in  its  consequences 
to  our  government,  and  so  to  the  interests  of  the 
community.  I  hope  that  the  signal  and  decisive 
manifestation  of  public  opinion  which  has,  for  the 
time  at  least,  put  down  the  despotism  of  nullifica- 
tion, may  produce  permanent  good  effect.  I  know 
full  well  that  popular  topics  may  be  urged  against 
the  proclamation.  I  know  that  it  may  be  said,  in 
regard  to  the  laws  of  last  session,  that  if  such  laws 
are  to  be  maintained,  Congress  may  pass  what  laws 
they  please  and  enforce  them.  But  may  it  not  be 
said,  on  the  other  hand,  that  if  a  State  may  nullify 
one  law,  she  may  nullify  any  other  law  also,  and, 
therefore,  that  the  principle  strikes  at  the  whole 
power  of  Congress?  Those  who  argue  against  the 
power  of  Congress,  from  the  possibility  of  its 
abuse,  entirely  forget  that  if  the  power  of  State 
interposition  be  allowed,  that  power  may  be  abused 
also.  What  is  more  material,  they  forget  the  will 
of  the  people  as  they  have  plainly  expressed  it  in 
the  Constitution.  They  forget  that  the  people  have 
chosen  to  give  Congress  a  power  of  legislation  in- 
dependent of  State  control.  They  forget  that  the 
Confederation  has  ceased,  and  that  a  Constitution, 
a  government,  has  taken  its  place. ' ' 

At  New  York  a  serious  effort  was  made  to  attach 
him  to  Jackson.  This  was  not  possible,  for  when 
Congress  met  the  struggle  with  Jacksonism  began, 
and  through  it  all  Webster  sided  with  the  Whigs. 


CHAPTER  X 


A   WHIG  LEADEE 


THE  reelection  of  Jackson  in  the  autumn  of  1832 
was  construed  by  him  to  mean  a  popular  in- 
dorsement of  his  financial  policy,  of  his  hostility 
to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  of  his  veto 
of  the  bill  to  renew  its  charter.  In  his  own  words, 
"The  bank  came  into  Congress  and  asked  a  new 
charter.  The  object  avowed  by  many  of  the  advo- 
cates of  the  bank  was  to  put  the  President  to  the 
test,  that  the  country  might  know  his  final  deter- 
mination relative  to  the  bank  prior  to  the  ensuing 
election.  .  .  .  Can  it  now  be  said  that  the  ques- 
tion of  a  recharter  of  the  bank  was  not  decided 
at  the  election  which  ensued?  .  .  .  Whatever 
may  be  the  opinion  of  others,  the  President  con- 
siders his  reelection  as  a  decision  of  the  people 
against  the  bank.  ...  He  was  sustained  by 
a  just  people,  and  he  desires  to  evince  his  grati- 
tude by  carrying  into  effect  their  decision  so  far 
as  it  depends  on  him. ' ' 

The  best  way  to  evince  this  gratitude  was,  to 
Jackson's  mind,  to  go  on  with  his  warfare.  And 
now  that  the  charter  could  not  be  renewed,  the  best 
way  to  carry  on  the  war  was  to  attack  the  credit 

226 


A  WHIG  LEADER  227 

of  the  bank  by  removing  the  government  deposits. 
Bent  on  this,  the  President  assembled  his  cabinet 
one  day  in  September,  announced  to  it  his  deter- 
mination, and  read  a  long  paper  in  which  were  set 
forth  his  reasons  for  the  act.  But  the  order  to 
the  receivers  of  public  money  to  make  no  more 
deposits  in  the  bank  or  its  branches  must  be  issued 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  secretary 
was  William  J.  Duane,  who  stoutly  refused  to  dis- 
turb the  deposits,  and  for  this  resistance  to  the  will 
of  Jackson  he  was  promptly  removed,  and  his  office 
bestowed  on  Roger  B.  Taney. 

Then  the  order  was  given,  twenty- three  "pet 
banks' '  were  chosen  to  be  the  keepers  of  public 
money,  and  the  whole  country  was  instantly  thrown 
into  commotion. 

In  the  Senate,  where  the  enemies  of  Jackson  were 
in  the  majority,  the  war  against  him  was  waged 
vigorously.  First  came  a  resolution  calling  on  the 
President  for  a  copy  of  the  paper  said  to  have  been 
read  to  the  cabinet.  This  was  refused,  and  the  right 
of  the  Senate  to  ask  for  the  paper  was  flatly  denied. 
Next  came  the  resolutions  containing  the  famous 
censure  of  Jackson;  and  while  these  were  under 
consideration,  memorials,  petitions,  resolutions 
poured  into  Congress  by  hundreds.  No  act  ever 
done  by  any  President  since  the  days  of  Washing- 
ton so  excited  the  people.  Party  feeling  was  al- 
layed, and  Whigs,  anti-Masons,  and  Jackson  men 
united   in   the   common    shout   of   condemnation. 


228  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

The  legislatures  of  eight  States  approved,  and  the 
legislatures  of  eight  denounced  the  conduct  of  the 
President.  From  congressional  districts,  counties, 
cities,  towns,  banks,  chambers  of  commerce,  boards 
of  trade,  merchants,  traders,  farmers,  artizans  of 
all  sorts,  came  petitions  bearing  hundreds  of  sig- 
natures, and  picturing  the  distress  caused  by  the 
ruin  of  credit  and  confidence  and  the  disorder  of 
the  currency.  Laborers,  it  was  said,  had  been 
thrown  out  of  employment,  mills  and  factories 
were  closed,  buying  and  selling  almost  ceased,  and 
all  because  of  a  needless  attack  on  the  business  in- 
terests of  the  people.  Some  of  the  petitioners 
prayed  for  a  renewal  of  the  bank  charter;  others 
for  a  restoration  of  the  deposits;  others  upheld 
the  President,  opposed  a  new  bank,  and  asked  that 
the  deposits  be  not  returned. 

Into  the  struggle  thus  begun  Webster  entered 
with  an  ardor  he  never  before  displayed.  He  gave 
his  support  and  vote  to  Clay's  resolutions  of  cen- 
sure on  the  President,  wrote  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee condemning  the  reasons  of  the  secretary  for 
obeying  the  order  of  Jackson,  and,  before  the  ses- 
sion closed,  attacked  the  financial  policy  of  the 
administration  scores  of  times  in  speeches  long  and 
short,  some  of  which  still  find  a  place  in  his  col- 
lected works.  That  on  "A  Redeemable  Paper 
Currency"  and  that  on  "The  Natural  Hatred  of 
the  Poor  to  the  Rick"  may  be  read  with  profit 
to-day. 


A  WHIG  LEADER  229 

The  vote  of  censure  having  passed  the  Senate, 
and  having  been  entered  on  the  "Journal,"  the 
President  prepared  a  long  message  and  protest, 
which  he  sent  to  the  Senate  in  April,  1834,  with 
the  request  that  it  also  might  be  entered  at  length 
on  the  "Journal."  Webster  was  then  away  on 
leave,  but,  hearing  at  Philadelphia  that  a  protest 
had  been  presented,  he  started  at  once  for  Wash- 
ington. It  was  Sunday  morning  when  the  steam- 
boat reached  Baltimore,  and  "It  had  been  given 
out,"  says  the  account,  "that  they  [Webster  and 
Mr.  Horace  Binney]  would  not  come  that  day,  per- 
haps to  prevent  the  gathering  of  a  crowd ;  but  the 
people  by  thousands  assembled  on  the  wharf.  Mr. 
Webster,  being  called  on,  made  a  few  animated 
remarks  from  the  boat,  with  a  view  of  dismissing 
the  ' Friends  of  the  Constitution'  assembled  to 
meet  him.  But  they  would  not  be  dismissed.  They 
formed  into  a  solid  body,  filling  the  whole  street, 
and  marched  up  to  the  City  Hotel.  When  he  ar- 
rived at  the  hotel,  hardly  less  than  five  thousand 
well-dressed  persons,  very  many  of  them  elderly 
men  and  of  lofty  standing  in  society,  were  assem- 
bled in  front  of  it,  and  the  gentlemen  were  succes- 
sively called  on  to  offer  a  few  words  of  exhortation. 
The  people  were  highly  excited,  and  often  cheered, 
but  in  a  subdued  tone  of  voice. ' '  For  this  Senator 
Forsyth  denounced  him  as  having  addressed  a 
"bawling  crowd"  on  the  Sabbath,  as  having  ex- 
cited a  "wretched  clamor,"  and  as  having  "de- 


230  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

signs  to  exasperate  the  people  to  treasonable  acts 
unless  they  submitted  to  the  power  of  a  great  mon- 
eyed corporation." 

The  speech  which  Webster  hurried  to  Washing- 
ton to  make  against  the  protest  is  a  careful  exami- 
nation of  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  Executive, 
and  of  the  powers  and  duties  of  the  Senate,  and  a 
fine  example  of  that  clearness  of  statement  and  of 
argument  in  which  he  was  unrivaled. 

Activity  of  this  sort  added  to  his  renown,  brought 
down  on  him  the  wrath  of  the  friends  of  Jackson, 
and  greatly  increased  the  admiration  felt  for  him 
by  all  who  about  this  time  began  to  call  themselves 
Whigs.  The  cartoonists  now  attacked  him  as  a 
national  character.  In  one  of  their  pictures  a  foun- 
tain of  Congress  water  has  exploded,  and  as  Clay 
and  Webster  are  blown  into  the  air  the  latter  ex- 
claims, "Thus  vaulting  ambition  doth  o'erleap  it- 
self and  falls  on  t'  other  side."  In  another  Jack- 
son holds  in  his  hand  the  order  for  the  removal 
of  the  deposits.  The  lightning  from  the  paper  is 
demolishing  the  bank,  and  Clay,  who  has  fallen 
amid  the  tottering  columns,  cries  out,  "Help  me 
up,  Webster,  or  I  shall  lose  my  stakes !"  To  this 
appeal  Webster  answers  as  he  runs  away :  "  '  There 
is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men, '  as  Shakspere  says. 
Sorry,  dear  Clay.  Look  out  for  yourself. ' '  In  yet 
another  cartoon  "Old  Hickory"  and  "Bully  Nick" 
are  about  to  engage  in  a  "set-to,"  with  "Long 
Harry"  and  "Black  Dan"  as  seconds  to  the  Bully. 


A   WHIG  LEADER  231 

Again,  Webster,  as  a  cat  mounted  on  a  copy  of  the 
Constitution  placed  upon  a  chair,  is  worried  by  the 
dog  Benton,  standing  on  the  floor. 

During  the  summer  of  1835,  business  having 
taken  Webster  to  Bangor,  he  accepted  a  dinner; 
but  so  many  people  wished  to  hear  and  see  him 
that,  when  the  cloth  was  removed,  he  was  forced 
to  make  his  speech  from  the  balcony  of  the  hotel. 
Again  his  theme  was  the  Constitution,  which  ap- 
peared, he  said,  to  have  been  formed  for  two  grand 
purposes.  "The  first  is  the  union  of  the  States. 
It  is  the  bond  of  that  union,  and  it  states  and  defines 
its  terms.  .  .  .  For  one,  I  am  not  sanguine 
enough  to  believe  that  if  this  bond  of  union  were 
dissolved,  any  other  tie  uniting  all  the  States  would 
take  its  place  for  generations  to  come.  It  requires 
no  common  skill,  it  is  no  ordinary  piece  of  politi- 
cal journey-work  to  form  a  system  which  shall 
hold  together  four-and-twenty  separate  State  sov- 
ereignties, the  line  of  whose  united  territories  runs 
down  all  the  parallels  of  latitude  from  New  Bruns- 
wick to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  whose  connected 
breadth  stretches  from  the  sea  far  beyond  the  Mis- 
sissippi. Nor  are  all  times  or  all  occasions  suited 
to  such  great  operations.  .  .  .  Whoever,  there- 
fore, undervalues  this  National  Union,  whoever 
depreciates  it,  whoever  accustoms  us  to  consider 
how  the  people  might  get  on  without  it,  appears 
to  me  to  encourage  sentiments  subversive  of  the 
foundation  of  our  prosperity.     .     .     . 


232  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

"Another  object  of  the  Constitution  I  take  to  be 
such  as  is  common  to  all  written  constitutions  of 
free  governments— that  is,  to  fix  limits  to  delegated 
authority,  or,  in  other  words,  to  impose  constitu- 
tional restraints  on  political  power.  .  .  .  It  is 
not  among  the  circumstances  of  the  times  most 
ominous  for  good,  that  a  diminished  estimate  ap- 
pears to  be  placed  on  those  constitutional  securi- 
ties. A  disposition  is  but  too  prevalent  to  substi- 
tute personal  confidence  for  legal  restraint— to  put 
trust  in  men,  rather  than  in  principles.  .  .  . 
Whatever  government  is  not  a  government  of  law 
is  a  despotism,  let  it  be  called  what  it  may." 

A  few  weeks  later,  when  a  silver  vase  was  pre- 
sented to  "the  defender  of  the  Constitution"  at 
Boston,  Webster  spoke  more  plainly  still  of  this 
change  in  the  Constitution.  "I  think,  then,  gen- 
tlemen, that  a  great  practical  change  is  going  on 
in  the  Constitution,  which,  if  not  checked,  must 
completely  alter  its  whole  character.  This  change 
consists  in  the  diminution  of  the  just  powers  of 
Congress  on  the  one  hand,  and  in  the  vast  increase 
of  executive  authority  on  the  other.  The  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  in  the  aggregate,  or  the 
legislative  power  of  Congress,  seems  fast  losing, 
one  after  another,  its  accustomed  powers.  One  by 
one  they  are  practically  struck  out  of  the  Consti- 
tution. What  has  become  of  the  power  of  internal 
improvement?  Does  it  remain  in  the  Constitution, 
or  is  it  erased  by  the  repeated  exercise  of  the  Presi- 


CAROLINE    LEROY,    MR.    WEBSTER  S    SECOND   WIFE. 


A  WHIG  LEADER  235 

dent 's  veto,  and  the  acquiescence  in  that  exercise  of 
all  who  call  themselves  his  friends,  whatever  their 
opinions  of  the  Constitution  1  The  power  to  cre- 
ate a  national  bank,—  .  .  .  is  it  not  true  that 
party  has  agreed  to  strike  this  power,  too,  from  the 
Constitution  in  compliance  with  what  has  been 
openly  called  the  interests  of  party?  Nay,  more; 
that  great  power,  the  power  of  protecting  domestic 
industry,  who  can  tell  me  whether  that  power  is 
now  regarded  as  in  the  Constitution  or  out  of  it?" 

Webster's  name  now  began  to  be  seriously  men- 
tioned as  that  of  the  next  Whig  candidate  for  the 
Presidency.  Indeed,  the  Whigs  in  the  Massachu- 
setts legislature  formally  nominated  him,  and  let- 
ters promising  support  came  to  him  from  Vermont, 
New  York,  Ohio,  and  Louisiana.  His  nomination 
was  indorsed  by  the  Whigs  of  Penobscot  County, 
Maine,  and  by  his  party  in  Berwyn,  Hallowell,  and 
Portland.  Webster  delegates  to  the  Pennsylvania 
State  Convention  were  chosen  in  the  counties  of 
Chester  and  Allegheny,  and  some  questions  were 
asked  him  by  the  anti-Masonic  State  Committee. 
But  the  Whigs  agreed  on  William  Henry  Harrison 
as  the  more  available  man,  and  nominated  him. 

For  Webster  to  remain  longer  in  the  field  as  a 
serious  candidate  was  useless,  and  when,  in  March, 
1836,  a  convention  of  Whig  members  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts legislature  and  delegates  from  towns  not 
represented  by  Whigs  in  the  General  Court  gath- 
ered in  Boston,  he  wrote  expressing  a  desire  to 


236  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

withdraw.  But  the  convention  would  not  hear  of 
such  a  thing,  voted  that  he  was  the  true  Whig  can- 
didate, and  at  the  autumn  election  Massachusetts 
cast  her  fourteen  electoral  votes  for  Daniel  Web- 
ster. He  received  no  others,  but  had  no  cause  for 
regret,  for  the  Whigs  were  overwhelmingly  beaten, 
and  Van  Buren  succeeded  Jackson. 

The  success  of  Van  Buren  was  disheartening, 
and  for  many  reasons  Webster  now  thought  se- 
riously of  retiring  from  the  Senate.  While  a  mem- 
ber of  the  House  and  but  one  in  a  State  delegation 
of  twelve,  he  had  found  it  an  easy  matter  to  carry 
on  a  lucrative  practice  in  the  Supreme  Court.  The 
interests  of  his  State  were  then  safe  in  the  care  of 
many  colleagues.  But  as  a  senator  he  was  one  of 
two,  and  duty  to  his  country  and  to  his  State  left 
little  time  for  practice,  and  his  income  went  down 
rapidly.  The  fight  with  nullification  in  1833  cut 
down  his  professional  gains  by  eight  thousand  dol- 
lars, and  never  since  had  his  earnings  approached 
what  they  might  have  been.  A  longing  for  a  great 
Western  farm  had  seized  him,  and  he  had  already 
acquired  a  little  tract  not  far  from  Springfield, 
Ohio,  which  he  named  Salisbury,  after  the  old  home 
of  his  father.  This  he  hoped  to  enlarge.  He  would 
make  it  a  tract  of  a  thousand  acres  and  engage  in 
farming  on  a  great  scale.  All  this  required  money, 
and  money  was  not  to  be  made  by  attendance  in 
the  Senate.  In  January,  1837,  therefore,  he  wrote 
to  friends  in  Massachusetts,  announcing  his  wish 


A  WHIG  LEADER  237 

to  resign,  and  urging  that  the  legislature  at  once 
elect  a  successor.  But  as  news  of  his  intention 
spread,  Whigs  in  all  quarters  besought  him  not  to 
withdraw.  Those  in  the  Massachusetts  legislature 
strongly  opposed  the  step,  and  appointed  a  com- 
mittee, with  the  Speaker,  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  at 
their  head,  to  beseech  him  to  remain  in  the  Sen- 
ate, or  at  least  to  postpone  his  resignation.  At 
New  York  city  a  meeting  of  his  political  friends 
was  called,  Chancellor  Kent  placed  in  the  chair, 
and  an  invitation  to  a  public  reception  tendered. 
If  he  must  leave  the  Senate,  this  was  to  be  a  tes- 
timonial of  a  lively  sense  of  his  public  services. 
If  he  could  be  persuaded  to  remain,  it  was  to  be 
an  opportunity  to  express  their  wishes  to  him  in 
a  manner  as  impressive  as  possible.  He  did  con- 
sent to  remain,  accepted  the  New  York  invitation, 
and  one  day  in  March,  1837,  was  met  at  Amboy  by 
a  committee,  and  escorted  to  Niblo  's  Garden,  where, 
in  the  presence  of  a  vast  throng,  he  gave  utterance 
to  his  i '  sentiments  freely  on  the  great  topics  of  the 
day"  in  what  was  long  remembered  as  the  " Niblo 's 
Garden  Speech." 

Again  his  theme  was  the  Union  and  the  Consti- 
tution. "The  general  government,"  said  he,  "to 
the  extent  of  its  power  is  national.  It  is  not  con- 
solidated, it  does  not  embrace  all  the  powers  of  gov- 
ernment. On  the  contrary,  it  is  delegated,  re- 
strained, strictly  limited.  But  what  power  it  does 
possess,  it  possesses  for  the  general,  not  for  any 


238  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

partial  or  local,  good.  It  extends  over  a  vast  ter- 
ritory, embracing  now  six-and-twenty  States,  with 
interests  various  but  not  irreconcilable,  infinitely 
diversified  but  capable  of  being  all  blended  into 
political  harmony.  He,  however,  who  would  pro- 
duce this  harmony  must  survey  the  whole  field. 
.  .  .  We  are  one  in  respect  to  the  glorious  Con- 
stitution under  which  we  live.  We  are  all  united 
in  the  great  brotherhood  of  American  liberty.  De- 
scending from  the  same  ancestors,  bred  in  the  same 
school,  taught  in  infancy  to  imbibe  the  same  gen- 
eral political  sentiments,  Americans  all,  by  birth, 
education,  and  principle,  what  but  a  narrow  mind 
or  woeful  ignorance  or  prejudice  ten  times  blinded 
can  lead  any  of  us  to  regard  the  citizens  of  any 
part  of  the  country  as  strangers  and  aliens? 

"Under  the  present  Constitution,  wisely  admin- 
istered, all  are  safe,  happy,  and  renowned.  .  .  . 
But  if  the  system  is  broken,  its  fragments  must  fall 
alike  on  all.  Not  only  the  cause  of  American  lib- 
erty, but  the  grand  cause  of  liberty  throughout  the 
whole  earth,  depends  in  a  great  measure  on  up- 
holding the  Constitution  and  Union  of  these  States. 
If  shattered  and  destroyed,  no  matter  by  what 
cause,  the  peculiar  and  cherished  idea  of  United 
American  Liberty  will  be  no  more  forever.  There 
may  be  free  States,  it  is  possible,  when  there  shall 
be  separate  States.  There  may  be  many  loose  and 
feeble  and  hostile  confederacies  where  there  is  now 
one  great  and  united  confederacy.    But  the  noble 


A  WHIG  LEADER  239 

idea  of  United  American  Liberty,  of  oar  liberty, 
such  as  our  fathers  established  it,  will  be  extin- 
guished forever.  .  .  .  Let  us,  then,  stand  by 
the  Constitution  as  it  is,  and  by  our  country  as  it 
is— one,  united,  and  entire;  let  it  be  a  truth  en- 
graven on  our  hearts,  let  it  be  borne  on  the  flag  un- 
der which  we  rally  in  every  exigency,  that  we  have 
one  Country,  one  Constitution,  one  destiny." 
In  the  spring  of  1837  Webster  again  determined 
to  visit  the  West,  and  in  May  was  on  his  way  to 
the  Ohio.  As  he  went  down  the  river,  a  steamboat 
bearing  a  hundred  citizens  of  Wheeling  met  and 
escorted  him  to  their  town,  where  a  throng  awaited 
him  at  the  landing.  A  dinner  and  a  speech  fol- 
lowed. At  Maysville  multitudes  from  the  country 
round  about  came  to  see  and  greet  him.  At  Lex- 
ington there  was  another  public  dinner,  and  at 
Louisville  a  barbecue,  at  which  he  again  spoke  for 
two  hours.  Thence  he  went  on  to  North  Bend  to 
visit  General  Harrison,  and  to  Cincinnati,  where 
there  was  another  outpouring  of  the  people  and 
another  speech.  At  St.  Louis  he  was  greeted,  said 
a  newspaper,  as  no  other  citizen  was  ever  received 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi.  At  Alton, 
across  the  river,  flags  were  displayed,  the  church 
bells  rang,  and  cannon  fired  as  he  came  ashore. 
The  great  panic  of  1837  was  now  sweeping  over  the 
country,  Van  Buren  had  summoned  Congress  to 
a  special  session,  and  at  Madison  Webster  turned 
homeward.    As  he  drew  near  Chicago,  a  long  train 


240  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

of  wagons  and  horsemen  met  him  ten  miles  from 
the  town,  escorted  him  to  the  Lake  House,  where 
he  spoke  to  the  crowd  that  packed  the  street.  The 
next  day  he  attended  a  festival  held  in  his  honor. 
Pushing  eastward,  he  visited  Michigan  City,  To- 
ledo, and  Buffalo,  where  he  was  entertained  with 
a  steamboat  regatta  on  the  lake,  and  then  went  on 
to  New  York  and  Boston. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   STRUGGLE   WITH    SLAVERY 

THE  decision  of  Webster  to  remain  in  the  Sen- 
ate brought  him  to  another  tnrning-point  in 
his  political  career,  and  he  went  back  to  begin  a 
new  contest  with  Calhoun  for  the  preservation  of 
the  Union.  The  first  struggle  arose  over  the  tariff, 
and  ended  in  nullification.  The  second  began  over 
slavery,  and  led  to  secession.  Mr.  Benton  is  au- 
thority for  the  statement  that  when  Calhoun  went 
back  to  his  home  in  the  spring  of  1833,  disappointed 
and  downhearted  at  the  slight  support  the  South 
had  given  to  the  act  of  nullification,  he  told  his 
friends  that  the  South  could  never  be  united  against 
the  North  on  the  question  of  the  tariff,  and  that  the 
basis  of  Southern  union  must  henceforth  be  the 
questions  that  sprang  from  slavery.  Certain  it  is 
that  by  1833  the  work  of  the  abolitionists  and  anti- 
slavery  people  began  to  tell.  It  was  in  1831  that 
the  first  number  of  the  ' '  Liberator ' '  appeared,  and 
the  State  of  Georgia  offered  five  thousand  dollars 
to  any  one  who  would  kidnap  Garrison  and  bring 
him  to  the  State.  It  was  in  1833  that  the  American 
Antislavery  Society  was  founded,  and  the  "  Tele- 
graph,' '  a  nullification  journal  published  at  Wash- 

241 


242  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

ington,  flatly  charged  the  people  of  the  North  with 
a  deliberate  purpose  to  destroy  slavery  in  the 
South.  Twenty  newspapers  in  twenty  different 
parts  of  the  North  and  the  South  at  once  made  an- 
swer, denying  the  charge,  and  accusing  Calhoun 
and  the  nullifiers  of  again  attempting  to  wreck  the 
Union.  "His  object/ '  said  one,  "is  to  fan  the 
flame  of  discord  and  separate  the  South  from  the 
North.  Mr.  Calhoun  has  been  defeated  in  his  am- 
bitious project  of  reaching  the  Presidency.  He 
would  now  gladly  ruin  the  fair  fabric  of  the  United 
States  that  he  might  become  the  chief  of  a  South- 
ern confederacy.  The  tariff  was  to  have  been  the 
pretext  for  separation.  This  having  failed,  a  new 
cause  is  sought  in  the  question  of  slavery,  and  such 
miserable  fanatics  as  Garrison  and  wretched  pub- 
lications as  the  'Liberator'  are  quoted  as  evidence 
of  the  feeling  of  the  people  of  the  North. " 

But  the  movement  thus  started  would  not  go 
down.  In  1834  there  were  antislavery  riots  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia.  It  was  in  1835  that  Gar- 
rison was  mobbed  in  Boston;  that  there  was  a 
riot  in  Utica;  that  antislavery  papers  were  taken 
from  the  post-office  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
and  burned  on  the  public  square;  that  Jackson  in 
his  message  asked  for  the  exclusion  of  such  docu- 
ments from  the  mails;  and  that  four  slaveholding 
States  requested  the  non-slaveholding  to  suppress 
the  abolitionists.  It  was  in  1836  that  James  G. 
Birney  was  mobbed  in  Cincinnati;  that  Calhoun 


THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  SLAVERY  243 

presented  a  bill  to  stop  the  delivery  by  postmasters 
of  antislavery  books,  papers,  tracts,  and  pictures; 
and  that  the  House  of  Representatives  passed  the 
first  of  the  gag  resolutions.  It  was  in  1837,  a  few 
weeks  before  Webster  spoke  in  Niblo's  Garden, 
that  the  United  States  recognized  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  slaveholding  republic  of  Texas. 

The  fate  of  slavery  was  now  clearly  a  national 
issue,  and  in  the  Niblo's  Garden  speech  Webster 
placed  himself  on  record.  That  a  desire  or  inten- 
tion to  annex  Texas  to  the  United  States  already 
existed  could  not  be  disguised,  he  said.  To  this 
he  saw  objections,  insurmountable  objections. 

'  'When  the  Constitution  was  formed  it  is  not 
probable, ' '  said  he,  ' '  that  either  its  f ramers  or  the 
people  ever  looked  to  the  admission  of  any  States 
into  the  Union,  except  such  as  then  already  existed 
and  such  as  should  be  formed  out  of  territory  then 
already  belonging  to  the  United  States.  Fifteen 
years  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  how- 
ever, the  case  of  Louisiana  arose.  Louisiana  was 
obtained  by  treaty  with  France,  who  had  recently 
obtained  it  from  Spain,  but  the  object  of  this 
acquisition  certainly  was  not  mere  extension  of  ter- 
ritory. Other  great  political  interests  were  con- 
nected with  it.  Spain,  while  she  possessed  Louisi- 
ana, had  held  the  mouth  of  the  great  rivers  which 
rise  in  the  Western  States  and  flow  into  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  She  had  disputed  our  use  of  the  rivers. 
.     .     .     The  command  of  these  rivers  to  the  sea 


244  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

was,  therefore,  the  great  object  arrived  at  in  the 
acquisition  of  Louisiana.' ' 

A  like  policy  and  a  like  necessity  led  to  the  pur- 
chase of  Florida.  But  no  such  policy  required  the 
annexation  of  Texas.  Her  addition  to  our  terri- 
tory was  not  necessary  to  the  full  and  complete 
enjoyment  of  that  already  possessed.  The  limits 
of  the  Union  in  that  direction  ought  not  to  be  ex- 
tended. Texas,  moreover,  was  likely  to  be  a  slave- 
holding  country,  no  matter  by  whom  possessed,  and 
he  was  not  willing  to  do  anything  that  should  * '  ex- 
tend the  slavery  of  the  African  race  on  this  conti- 
nent, or  add  other  slaveholding  States  to  the  Union. 
.  .  .  When  I  say  that  I  regard  slavery  in  itself 
as  a  great  moral,  social,  and  political  evil,  I  only 
use  language  which  has  been  adopted  by  distin- 
guished men,  themselves  citizens  of  slaveholding 
States.  I  shall  do  nothing,  therefore,  to  favor  or 
encourage  its  further  extension.  We  have  slavery 
already  amongst  us.  The  Constitution  found  it  in 
the  Union;  it  recognized  it,  and  gave  it  solemn 
guarantees.  To  the  full  extent  of  these  guarantees 
we  are  all  bound  in  honor,  in  justice,  and  by  the 
Constitution.  .  .  .  But  when  we  come  to  speak 
of  admitting  new  States,  the  subject  assumes  an 
entirely  different  aspect.  Our  rights  and  our  duties 
are  then  both  different.  .  .  .  When  it  is  pro- 
posed to  bring  new  members  into  this  political 
partnership,  the  old  members  have  a  right  to  say 
under  what  terms  such  new  partners  are  to  come 


THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  SLAVERY  245 

in,  and  what  they  are  to  bring  along  with  them. 
.  .  .  In  my  opinion,  the  people  of  the  United 
States  will  not  consent  to  bring  into  the  Union 
a  new,  vastly  extensive,  and  slaveholding  coun- 
try, large  enough  for  half  a  dozen  or  a  dozen 
States.  In  my  opinion,  they  ought  not  to  consent 
to  it."  Here  was  free-soilism  plainly  stated,  and 
here,  as  Webster  claimed  thirteen  years  later,  was 
to  be  found  the  principle  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso. 

As  he  was  not  a  Southern  expansionist,  so  he 
was  not  a  Northern  abolitionist.  "Slavery  as  it 
exists  in  the  States, ' '  said  he,  ' '  is  beyond  the  reach 
of  Congress.  It  is  a  concern  of  the  States  them- 
selves. They  have  never  submitted  it  to  Congress, 
and  Congress  has  no  rightful  power  over  it.  I 
shall  concur,  therefore,  in  no  act,  no  measure,  no 
menace,  no  indication  of  purpose  which  shall  in- 
terfere, or  threaten  to  interfere,  with  the  exclusive 
authority  of  the  several  States  over  the  subject  of 
slavery  as  it  exists  within  their  respective  limits. 
All  this  appears  to  me  to  be  matter  of  plain  and 
imperative  duty." 

On  the  great  question  then  before  Congress— the 
right  of  citizens  to  petition  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  duty 
of  Congress  to  receive  and  its  power  to  grant  peti- 
tions—he said  not  a  word.  Yet  there  was  no  phase 
of  the  struggle  for  the  rights  of  man  which  at  that 
time  more  deeply  interested  the  people.  For  nearly 
a  decade  past  the  abolitionists  had  been  flooding 


246  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

the  Senate  and  the  House  at  each  session  with  peti- 
tions to  abolish  both  slavery  and  the  slave-trade 
in  the  District  over  which  Congress  had  absolute 
jurisdiction.  So  long  as  the  pro-slavery  party  was 
content  to  allow  these  petitions  to  take  the  usual 
course  of  such  appeals,  so  long  as  it  would  suffer 
them  to  be  received,  committed,  and  utterly  forgot- 
ten, no  serious  consequences  followed.  But  their 
increasing  number,  the  persistence  with  which  they 
were  introduced,  the  spirit  believed  to  animate  their 
signers,  and  fear  of  the  evils  likely  to  follow  a  con- 
stant agitation  of  the  slavery  question  had,  of  late 
years,  so  alarmed  the  slaveholders  that  in  1836  the 
House  of  Representatives  ordered  that  every  paper 
which  in  any  way  had  to  do  with  slavery  should, 
without  being  printed  or  referred,  be  laid  upon  the 
table,  and  that  no  further  action  whatever  should 
be  had  thereon.  As  yet  the  Senate  was  not  ready 
to  go  so  far ;  but  when,  in  December,  1837,  Calhoun 
presented  resolutions  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
and  Clay  moved  a  substitute  for  one  of  them,  Web- 
ster spoke  out.  "The  intermeddling, ' '  said  Cal- 
houn, '  *  of  any  State,  or  States,  or  their  citizens,  to 
abolish  slavery  in  this  District,  or  any  of  the  terri- 
tories, on  the  ground  or  under  the  pretext  that  it 
is  immoral  or  sinful,  or  the  passage  of  any  act  or 
measure  of  Congress  with  that  view,  would  be  a 
direct  and  dangerous  attack  on  the  institutions  of 
all  the  slave  States. ' '  Such  interference,  said  Clay, 
"would  be  a  violation  of  the  faith  implied  in  the 


THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  SLAVERY  247 

cession  by  the  States  of  Virginia  and  Maryland.'' 
From  this  Webster  dissented.  He  denied  that  any 
faith  had  been  plighted,  maintained  the  absolute 
jurisdiction  of  Congress  over  the  District,  and  held 
that  there  vvras  nothing  in  the  act  of  cession,  noth- 
ing in  the  Constitution,  nothing  in  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  transaction,  implying  any  limitation  on 
the  right  of  Congress  to  legislate  as  it  pleased  on 
slavery.  "If,"  said  he,  "the  assertion  contained 
in  this  resolution  be  true,  a  very  strange  result,  as 
it  seems  to  me,  must  follow.  The  resolution  affirms 
that  the  faith  of  Congress  is  plighted  indefinitely. 
If  this  be  so,  then  it  is  an  obligation  that  binds  us 
forever,  as  much  as  if  it  were  one  of  the  prohibi- 
tions of  the  Constitution  itself.  And  at  all  times 
hereafter,  even  if,  in  the  course  of  their  history, 
availing  themselves  of  events,  or  changing  their 
views  of  policy,  the  States  themselves  should  make 
provision  for  the  emancipation  of  their  slaves,  the 
existing  state  of  things  could  not  be  changed,  nev- 
ertheless, in  this  District.  It  does  really  seem  to  me 
that  if  this  resolution,  in  its  terms,  be  true,  though 
slavery  in  every  other  part  of  the  world  may  be 
abolished,  yet  in  the  metropolis  of  this  great  repub- 
lic it  is  established  in  perpetuity." 

Whether  slavery  was  or  was  not  abolished  con- 
cerned him  little.  The  constitutional  question  alone 
interested  him,  and,  writing  of  the  resolutions  to 
a  friend,  he  said:  "Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Calhoun 
have  attempted  in  1838  what,  in  my  judgment,  they 


248  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

attempted  in  1833— to  make  a  new  Constitution. ' ' 
Nor  was  this  a  hasty  judgment.  That  Calhoun  was 
really  bent  on  some  scheme  harmful  to  the  Consti- 
tution and  the  Union  seems  to  have  been  Webster  's 
deliberate  belief;  and  later  in  the  session  of  1838, 
in  a  speech  famous  in  its  day,  he  reviewed  the  polit- 
ical conduct  of  Calhoun  since  1833,  and  charged  him 
with  a  steady  design  to  break  up  the  Union.  ' '  The 
honorable  member  from  South  Carolina,"  said  he, 
' 'habitually  indulges  in  charges  of  usurpation  and 
oppression  against  the  government  of  his  country. 
He  daily  denounces  its  important  measures  in  the 
language  in  which  our  Eevolutionary  fathers  spoke 
of  the  oppression  of  the  mother  country.  .  .  . 
A  principal  object  in  his  late  political  movements, 
the  gentleman  himself  tells  us,  was  to  unite  the 
entire  South;  and  against  whom  or  against  what 
does  he  wish  to  unite  the  entire  South!  .  .  . 
While  the  gentleman  thus  wishes  to  unite  the  entire 
South,  I  pray  to  know,  sir,  if  he  expects  me  to  turn 
toward  the  polar  star,  and,  acting  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple, to  utter  a  cry  of  Rally !  to  the  whole  North  1 
Heaven  forbid!  To  the  day  of  my  death  neither 
he  nor  others  shall  ever  hear  such  a  cry  from  me. 
"Finally,  the  honorable  member  declares  that 
he  shall  now  march  off  under  the  banner  of  State 
Rights !  March  off  from  whom  1  March  off  from 
what!  We  have  been  contending  for  great  prin- 
ciples. We  have  been  struggling  to  maintain  the 
liberty  and  to  restore  the  prosperity  of  the  coun- 


THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  SLAVERY  249 

try;  we  have  made  these  struggles  here,  in  the 
national  councils,  with  the  old  flag,  the  true  Ameri- 
can flag,  the  eagle  and  the  stars  and  stripes,  wav- 
ing over  the  chamber  in  which  we  sit.  He  now 
tells  us,  however,  that  he  marches  off  under  the 
States '  Rights  banner. 

' '  Let  him  go.  I  remain.  I  am  where  I  ever  have 
been  and  ever  mean  to  be.  Here,  standing  on  the 
platform  of  the  general  Constitution,— a  platform 
broad  enough  and  firm  enough  to  uphold  every 
interest  of  the  whole  country,— I  shall  still  be 
found.  ...  I  move  off  under  no  banner  not 
known  to  the  whole  American  people,  and  to  their 
Constitution  and  laws." 

The  position  thus  publicly  taken  by  Webster  on 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
and  the  power  of  Congress  to  make  the  District  of 
Columbia  free  soil,  brought  out  letters  asking  for 
further  statements  of  his  opinion  on  the  question 
of  the  hour.  To  one  he  wrote :  l '  I  think  you  would 
be  very  safe  in  adopting,  in  your  House,  an  anti- 
Texas  report.  As  to  slavery,  I  think  it  very  safe 
to  adopt  a  resolution  condemning  Mr.  Patton's 
resolution.  Whether  it  will  be  best  to  go  farther, 
you  who  are  on  the  spot  can  best  decide.  My  own 
opinion  is  that  the  antislavery  feeling  is  growing 
stronger  and  stronger  every  day;  and  while  we 
must  be  careful  to  countenance  nothing  which  vio- 
lates the  Constitution  or  invades  the  rights  of 
others,  it  is  our  policy,  in  my  opinion  most  clearly, 


250  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

not  to  yield  the  substantial  truth  for  the  sake  of 
conciliating  those  whom  we  never  can  conciliate,  at 
the  expense  of  the  loss  of  the  friendship  and  sup- 
port of  those  great  masses  of  good  men  who  are 
interested  in  the  antislavery  cause. 

"I  send  you  inclosed  a  copy  of  a  letter  lately 
addressed  by  me  to  Mr.  Peck  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. It  states  shortly  the  opinions  which 
I  hold,  and  am  ready  to  express,  on  the  general 
slavery  question.  I  refer  you  also  to  some  remarks 
of  mine,  published  in  the  '  Intelligencer, '  upon  Mr. 
Clay's  substitute  for  Mr.  Calhoun's  resolution." 

In  this  letter  to  Mr.  Peck,  Webster  declares  his 
belief  to  be  that  Congress  has  no  power  to  free 
slaves  in  any  State,  but  may  do  so  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  and  may  regulate  the  purchase  and 
sale  of  slaves  in  the  District  in  any  manner  thought 
just  and  expedient ;  that  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  may  petition  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
the  District;  and  "that  all  such  petitions,  being 
respectfully  written,  ought  to  be  received,  read,  re- 
ferred, and  considered  in  the  same  manner  as  peti- 
tions on  other  important  subjects." 

The  campaign  of  1840  was  now  at  hand,  and  as 
all  signs  pointed  to  a  great  Whig  victory,  the 
Whigs  of  Massachusetts  put  Webster  in  nomina- 
tion. But  no  one  else  thought  of  him  for  a  moment, 
and  when  the  National  Convention  met  in  Decem- 
ber, 1839,  William  Henry  Harrison  was  chosen  to 
lead  the  party.    No  platform  was  adopted,  but  a 


THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  SLAVERY  251 

Baltimore  newspaper  furnished  one  in  the  sneer 
that,  with  two  thousand  dollars  a  year,  Harrison 
would  be  content  to  live  in  a  log  cabin  and  drink 
hard  cider,  and  this  was  all  the  Whigs  needed.  To 
discuss  issues  and  principles  was  useless.  As  Web- 
ster said  truly,  the  people  wanted  a  change,  and  a 
change  they  were  determined  to  have,  and  for  a 
party  bent  on  a  change  the  Hero  of  Tippecanoe  was 
just  the  man  and  the  slur  cast  on  his  poverty  was 
just  the  platform.  Save  the  little  red  school-house, 
nothing  was  dearer  to  the  heart  of  the  people  than 
the  log  cabin,  and  no  insult  more  galling  could  pos- 
sibly have  been  uttered.  That  humble  abode,  with 
its  puncheon  floor,  its  mud- smeared  sides,  its  latch- 
string,  its  window,  where  well-greased  paper  did 
duty  for  glass,  had  ever  been,  and  was  still,  the 
symbol  of  American  hardihood,  and  instantly  be- 
came the  true  Whig  watchword.  On  vacant  lots 
in  every  city  and  town,  on  ten  thousand  village 
greens,  the  cabin,  with  a  coon's  skin  on  the  wall, 
with  the  latch-string  hanging  out  in  token  of  wel- 
come, and  with  a  barrel  of  hard  cider  close  beside 
the  door,  became  the  Whig  headquarters.  Mounted 
on  wheels  and  occupied  by  speakers,  it  was  dragged 
from  village  to  village.  Log-cabin  raisings,  log- 
cabin  medals,  log-cabin  badges,  magazines,  alma- 
nacs, song-books,  pictures,  were  everywhere  to  be 
seen;  and  into  this  wild  campaign  of  song  and 
laughter  Webster  entered  with  unwonted  zeal. 
Though  nobody  wanted  him  to  be  President,  the 


252  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

whole  country  seemed  possessed  to  hear  him  speak. 
Countless  Tippecanoe  clubs  elected  him  a  member ; 
innumerable  " raisings"  claimed  his  presence. 
New  Hampshire  appealed  to  him  as  the  State  where 
he  was  born.  The  West  clamored  for  him  as  the 
stanch  friend  of  her  interests.  A  score  of  towns 
wanted  him  as  the  orator  for  the  Fourth  of  July. 
The  candidate  himself  was  not  so  eagerly  sought. 

To  many  of  their  appeals  Webster  acceded,  and 
addressed  meeting  after  meeting  till,  he  writes  to 
his  wife,  he  is  "sore  from  speaking."  In  another 
letter  he  tells  her:  "I  am  charged  with  burning 
the  convent  at  Charlestown  [1836].  Do  you  recol- 
lect how  I  did  it?  Will  you  promise  not  to  betray 
me  if  I  deny  it!" 

His  great  speeches  were  at  Saratoga,  Bunker 
Hill,  New  York,  and  Richmond.  At  Saratoga, 
catching  the  spirit  of  the  times,  he  lamented  that 
he  too  had  not  been  born  in  a  log  cabin.  "  Gen- 
tlemen, it  did  not  happen  to  me  to  be  born  in  a 
log  cabin;  but  my  elder  brothers  and  sisters  were 
born  in  a  log  cabin,  raised  amid  the  snow-drifts  of 
New  Hampshire  at  a  period  so  early  that  when  the 
smoke  first  rose  from  its  rude  chimney  and  curled 
over  the  frozen  hills  there  was  no  similar  evidence 
of  a  white  man's  habitation  between  it  and  the  set- 
tlements on  the  rivers  of  Canada.  Its  remains  still 
exist.  I  make  to  it  an  annual  visit.  I  carry  my 
children  to  it,  to  teach  them  the  hardships  endured 
by  the  generations  which  have  gone  before  them. 


THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  SLAVERY  253 

.  .  .  And  if  ever  I  am  ashamed  of  it,  or  if  I 
ever  fail  in  affectionate  veneration  for  him  who 
raised  it,  and  defended  it  against  savage  violence 
and  destruction,  cherished  all  the  domestic  virtues 
beneath  its  roof,  and,  through  the  fire  and  blood 
of  a  seven  years'  revolutionary  war,  shrank  from 
no  danger,  no  toil,  no  sacrifice,  to  serve  his  coun- 
try, and  to  raise  his  children  to  a  condition  better 
than  his  own,  may  my  name  and  the  name  of  my 
posterity  be  blotted  forever  from  the  memory  of 
mankind!"  After  the  Bunker  Hill  festival,  the 
area  covered  by  the  crowd  was  measured,  and  sev- 
enty-five thousand  persons  were  said  to  have  at- 
tended. 

At  Richmond,  in  October,  Webster  spoke  to  the 
Whig  Convention  gathered  in  the  Capitol  Square 
to  do  him  honor.  He  stood  now  on  dangerous 
ground,  for  the  cry  had  been  raised  that  to  invite 
such  a  man  to  come  to  Virginia  and  speak  to  Vir- 
ginians was  a  great  breach  of  propriety.  That  he 
should  make  clear  his  views  on  certain  matters 
seemed  to  him  therefore  quite  necessary;  and  as 
one  of  these  was  slavery,  he  took  occasion,  in  the 
course  of  the  speech,  to  put  himself  again  on  rec- 
ord. ' '  I  am  brought, ' '  said  he,  i '  to  advert  for  one 
moment  to  what  I  constantly  see  in  all  the  admin- 
istration papers  from  Baltimore  south.  It  is  one 
perpetual  outcry,  admonishing  the  people  of  the 
South  that  their  own  State  governments,  and  the 
property  they  hold  under  them,  are  not  secure  if 


254  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

they  admit  a  Northern  man  to  any  considerable 
share  in  the  administration  of  the  general  govern- 
ment. You  all  know  that  that  is  the  universal 
cry.  ...  I  shall  ask  some  friend  connected 
with  the  press  to  circulate  in  Virginia  what  I  said 
on  this  subject  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
in  January,  1830.  I  have  nothing  to  add  to  or  sub- 
tract from  what  I  then  said.  I  commend  it  to 
your  attention,  or  rather  I  desire  you  to  look  at 
it.  I  hold  that  Congress  is  absolutely  precluded 
from  interfering  in  any  manner,  direct  or  indirect, 
with  this  or  with  any  other  of  the  institutions  of 
the  States."  When  the  delegates  heard  this  they 
cheered  him  wildly,  and  one  in  the  crowd  cried  out, 
"We  wish  this  could  be  heard  from  Maryland  to 
Louisiana,  and  we  wish  that  the  sentiment  just  ex- 
pressed may  be  repeated."  "Repeat!  Repeat!" 
was  now  heard  on  every  side.  l l  Well, ' '  said  Web- 
ster, "I  repeat  it,  proclaim  it  on  the  wings  of  all 
the  winds,  tell  it  to  all  your  friends  [cries  of  "We 
will !  We  will !"],  tell  it,  I  say,  that,  standing  here 
in  the  capital  of  Virginia,  beneath  an  October  sun, 
in  the  midst  of  this  assemblage,  before  the  entire 
country  and  upon  all  the  responsibility  which  be- 
longs to  me,  I  say  that  there  is  no  power,  direct 
or  indirect,  in  Congress  or  the  general  government 
to  interfere  in  the  slightest  degree  with  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  South." 


CHAPTER  XII 

SECRETARY    OP    STATE 

THE  election  over  and  won,  Harrison  tendered 
the  Department  of  State  to  Clay,  and,  when  he 
refused,  asked  Webster  to  choose  between  the  State 
Department  and  the  Treasury.  To  this  Webster 
replied :  ' '  The  question  of  accepting  a  seat  in  your 
cabinet,  should  it  be  tendered  me,  has  naturally 
been  the  subject  of  my  reflections  and  of  consul- 
tations with  friends.  The  result  of  these  reflec- 
tions and  consultations  has  been  that  I  should 
accept  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State,  should  it  be 
offered  to  me  under  circumstances  such  as  now 
exist. ' ' 

The  President-elect  answered:  "I  entirely  ap- 
prove of  your  choice  of  the  two  tendered  you"; 
and  on  March  4,  Webster,  having  resigned  his  seat 
in  the  Senate,  took  up  the  duties  of  Secretary  of 
State. 

The  first  official  duty  laid  upon  him  was  the 
revision  of  the  inaugural  address,  which  the  Presi- 
dent-elect had  prepared  with  much  pains,  and  which 
abounded  in  that  sort  of  classical  knowledge  so 
fashionable  when  Harrison  was  a  lad.  Roman  his- 
tory was  freely  drawn  on,  and  the  speech  was  sprin- 

255 


256  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

kled  with  references  to  Caesar,  the  proconsuls,  and 
the  Roman  knights.  This  was  too  much  for  the 
new  secretary,  and,  after  a  long  struggle,  the  Presi- 
dent-elect agreed  to  leave  out  most  of  his  warnings 
from  the  past.  The  story  is  told  that  when  the 
work  of  revision  was  over  and  Webster  reached 
his  lodgings,  the  mistress  of  the  house  remarked 
that  he  looked  tired,  and  asked  if  anything  had 
happened.  "You  would  think  that  something  had 
happened  if  you  knew  what  I  have  done, ' '  was  the 
reply.  "I  have  killed  seventeen  Roman  procon- 
suls.' '  But  Caesar  and  the  Roman  knights  es- 
caped, and  still  adorn  the  inaugural  address. 

One  month  after  its  delivery  Harrison  died,  and 
the  stormy  administration  of  Tyler  began.  At  the 
special  session  of  Congress  called  by  Harrison  to 
correct  the  evils  of  Democratic  rule,  Tyler  agreed 
to  most  of  the  measures  of  reform.  He  signed  the 
bill  repealing  the  subtreasury  act,  the  bill  to  dis- 
tribute the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  public  land,  the 
bill  to  change  the  banking  system  of  the  District 
of  Columbia,  and  the  revenue  bill;  but  he  vetoed 
the  charter  for  a  "Fiscal  Bank  of  the  United 
States,"  and  the  Whigs  at  once  brought  in  a  bill 
to  establish  a  "Fiscal  Corporation."  While  the 
matter  was  still  before  Congress,  members  of  that 
body  consulted  Webster  as  to  the  best  course  to 
pursue,  and  were  given  this  advice: 

"I  should  not  volunteer  my  opinions  to  you  in 
any  matter  respecting  the  discharge  of  your  public 


JOSEPH    STOKY,    ASSOCIATE   JUSTICE   OF   THE    SUPREME    COURT. 


SECRETARY  OF  STATE  259 

duties  in  another  department  of  the  government; 
but  as  you  spoke  last  evening  of  the  general  policy 
of  the  Whigs,  under  the  present  posture  of  affairs, 
relative  to  the  Bank  Bill,  I  am  willing  to  place  you 
in  full  possession  of  my  opinion  on  that  subject. 

4 'It  is  not  necessary  to  go  farther  back  into  the 
history  of  the  past  than  the  introduction  of  the  pres- 
ent measure  into  the  House  of  Representatives. 
That  introduction  took  place  within  two  or  three 
days  after  the  President's  disapproval  of  the  for- 
mer bill,  and  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  it 
was  honestly  and  fairly  intended  as  a  measure 
likely  to  meet  the  President's  approbation.  I  do 
not  believe  that  one  in  fifty  of  the  Whigs  had  any 
sinister  design  whatever,  if  there  was  an  individual 
who  had  such  design.  But  I  know  that  the  Presi- 
dent had  been  greatly  troubled  in  regard  to  the 
former  bill,  being  desirous,  on  one  hand,  to  meet 
the  wishes  of  his  friends  if  he  could,  and,  on  the 
other,  to  do  justice  to  his  own  opinions.  Having 
returned  this  first  bill,  with  objections,  a  new  one 
was  presented  in  the  House,  and  appeared  to  be 
making  rapid  progress.  I  know  the  President  re- 
gretted this,  and  wished  that  the  whole  subject 
might  have  been  postponed.  At  the  same  time,  I 
believe  he  was  disposed  to  consider  calmly  and 
conscientiously  whatever  other  measure  might  be 
presented  to  him. 

"But,  in  the  meantime,  Mr.  Botts's  very  extraor- 
dinary letter  made  its  appearance.    Mr.  Botts  is  a 


260  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

Whig  of  eminence  and  influence  in  our  ranks.  I 
need  not  recall  to  your  mind  the  contents  of  the 
letter.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  it  purported  that 
the  Whigs  designed  to  circumvent  their  own  Presi- 
dent, to  'head  him/  as  the  expression  was,  to 
place  him  in  a  condition  of  embarrassment.  From 
that  moment  I  felt  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
Whigs  to  forbear  from  pressing  the  Bank  Bill  fur- 
ther at  the  present  time.  I  thought  it  was  but  just 
in  them  to  give  decisive  proof  that  they  entertained 
no  such  purpose  as  seemed  to  be  imputed  to  them. 
And  since  there  was  reason  to  believe  that  the 
President  would  be  glad  of  time  for  information 
and  reflection  before  being  called  on  to  form  an 
opinion  on  another  plan  for  a  bank— a  plan  some- 
what new  to  the  country— I  thought  his  known 
wishes  ought  to  be  complied  with.  I  think  so  still. 
I  think  this  is  a  course  just  to  the  President  and 
wise  on  behalf  of  the  Whig  party.  A  decision 
which  ought,  in  my  judgment,  to  be  given  to  the 
intimation,  from  whatever  quarter,  of  a  disposi- 
tion among  the  Whigs  to  embarrass  the  President. 
This  is  the  main  ground  of  my  opinion,  and  such 
a  rebuke,  I  think,  would  be  found  in  the  general 
resolution  of  the  party  to  postpone  further  pro- 
ceedings on  the  subject  to  the  next  session,  now 
only  a  little  more  than  three  months  off. 

' '  The  session  has  been  fruitful  of  important  acts. 
The  wants  of  the  treasury  have  been  supplied,  pro- 
visions have  been  made  for  fortification  and  for 


SECBETAEY  OF  STATE  261 

the  navy,  the  repeal  of  the  subtreasury  has  passed, 
the  Bankrupt  Bill,  that  great  measure  of  justice 
and  benevolence,  has  been  carried  through,  and  the 
Land  Bill  seems  about  to  receive  the  approbation 
of  Congress.  In  all  these  measures,  forming  a  mass 
of  legislation  more  important,  I  will  venture  to 
say,  than  all  the  proceedings  of  Congress  for  many 
years  past,  the  President  has  cordially  concurred. 

' '  I  agree  that  the  currency  question  is,  neverthe- 
less, the  great  question  before  the  country ;  but,  con- 
sidering what  has  already  been  accomplished  in 
regard  to  other  things,  considering  the  differences 
of  opinion  which  exist  upon  this  remaining  one, 
and  considering,  especially,  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  Whigs  effectually  to  repel  and  put  down  any 
supposition  that  they  are  endeavoring  to  put  the 
President  in  a  condition  in  which  he  must  act  under 
restraint  or  embarrassment,  I  am  fully  and  entirely 
persuaded  that  the  bank  subject  should  be  post- 
poned to  the  next  session.' ' 

The  advice  was  disregarded;  the  Fiscal  Cor- 
poration Bill  went  to  the  President  and  was  ve- 
toed, and  four  members  of  the  cabinet  resigned 
in  a  body.  A  fifth  soon  followed,  and  the  great 
Whig  leaders,  in  a  formal  manifesto,  read  John 
Tyler  out  of  the  party.  Webster  remained  in  the 
cabinet.  For  a  moment  he  seems  to  have  been  in 
doubt  just  what  to  do,  and  in  his  uncertainty  wrote 
post-haste  to  a  friend  in  Boston,  "Do  the  Whigs 
of  Massachusetts  think  I  ought  to  quit  or  ought 

15 


262  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

to  stay?"  and  asked  the  Massachusetts  delegation 
to  meet  him  in  consultation.  The  advice  of  those 
gentlemen  was  not  to  quit;  and  three  days  later, 
Webster,  in  a  letter  to  a  newspaper,  made  known 
his  reasons  for  remaining.  He  saw  no  cause  for 
the  sudden  dissolution  of  the  cabinet  by  the  volun- 
tary act  of  its  members ;  he  believed  that  some  sort 
of  institution  to  aid  the  financial  operations  of  the 
government  and  to  give  the  country  a  good  cur- 
rency and  cheap  exchanges  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary, and  that,  to  get  it,  there  must  be  a  union  of 
Whig  President,  Whig  Congress,  and  Whig  people. 
Having  decided  to  remain  in  the  Cabinet,  Webster 
became  the  champion  of  the  President,  and  in  un- 
signed notes  to  newspapers  attacked  his  late  col- 
leagues. 

"It  is  plain  enough,"  he  said  in  one  such  note, 
' '  that  the  ex-secretaries  take  the  President  at  great 
disadvantage. 

"They  write  him  letters  which  they  know  he 
cannot  answer,  because  the  President  of  the  United 
States  cannot  enter  into  such  a  correspondence. 

' '  They  use  weapons,  therefore,  which  they  know 
he  cannot  use. 

i  '  In  the  next  place,  they  undertake  to  state  Cab- 
inet conversations,  which  he  regards  as  confiden- 
tial, and  to  which  he  cannot  refer  without  violat- 
ing his  own  sense  of  propriety  and  dignity. 

1  i  Having  thus  placed  the  President  in  a  position 
in  which  he  cannot  defend  himself,  they  make  war 


SECRETARY  OP  STATE  263 

upon  him;  and  this  we  suppose  high-mindedness 
and  '  chivalry. '  " 

Back  of  all  this  were  far  weightier  reasons  which 
he  could  not  publicly  declare.  Grave  questions  of 
long  standing  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  were  pressing  for  a  settlement,  peaceably  if 
possible,  forcibly  if  necessary ;  for  settled  they  must 
be.  The  north  boundary  of  Maine,  after  fifty-eight 
years  of  discussion,  was  still  undefined.  The  affair 
of  the  Caroline,  and  the  assumption  by  Great  Brit- 
ain of  all  responsibility  for  the  destruction  of  that 
steamboat,  had  aroused  the  whole  frontier  of  New 
York;  the  arrest  and  trial  of  McLeod  had  thrown 
Great  Britain  into  a  passion ;  while  her  assertion  of 
a  right  to  search  ships  supposed  to  be  engaged  in 
the  African  slave-trade  stirred  up  a  question  once 
made  a  cause  of  war.  Could  Webster  bring  about  a 
peaceful  settlement  of  these  many  sources  of  ill  feel- 
ing and  ill  will  between  two  nations  which  of  all 
others  ought  to  be  friends,  he  would  render  to  his 
country  services  of  no  common  sort ;  and  the  belief 
that  he  could  do  much  to  accomplish  such  an  end 
was  the  chief  reason  why  his  State  delegation  was 
opposed  to  his  resigning  the  Secretaryship  of  State. 
Again,  he  was  an  Eastern  man,  and,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  people  of  Maine,  the  boundary  question 
would  never  be  settled  till  a  man  born  and  bred 
among  them  took  the  dispute  in  hand. 

The  first  of  these  matters  to  be  urged  upon  him 
was  the  case  of  Alexander  McLeod.    A  rebellion 


264  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

which  broke  out  in  Canada  in  1837  had  with  diffi- 
culty been  put  down;  and  toward  the  end  of  the 
year  a  band  of  Canadian  refugees  and  American 
sympathizers  took  possession  of  Navy  Island,  set 
up  a  temporary  government,  adopted  a  flag  and 
seal  and  issued  paper  money,  and  became  an  ob- 
ject of  interest  to  all  along  the  Niagara  frontier. 
Seeing  in  this  a  chance  to  make  a  little  money,  the 
owner  of  a  small  steamboat  called  the  Caroline 
cut  her  out  of  the  ice  in  Buffalo  Creek,  and  on 
the  29th  of  December,  1837,  made  two  trips  be- 
tween Fort  Schlosser  and  Navy  Island,  taking 
over  men,  arms,  food,  and  a  cannon.  Sir  Allan 
McNab,  commander  of  the  provincial  forces,  looked 
on  this  boat  as  in  the  service  of  the  insurgents, 
called  for  volunteers  to  destroy  her,  and  on  the 
night  of  December  29  she  was  boarded  at  Fort 
Schlosser  by  five  boat-loads  of  armed  men,  who 
drove  her  occupants  ashore,  gave  her  to  the  flames, 
and  sent  her,  a  blazing  wreck,  over  Niagara  Falls. 
In  the  course  of  the  attack,  several  of  our  citizens 
were  wounded,  and  one  was  killed  outright.  A 
formal  demand  for  redress  and  apology  was 
promptly  made  on  the  British  government ;  but  no 
apology  was  tendered,  no  redress  was  offered,  and 
the  affair  was  well-nigh  forgotten  when  Alexander 
McLeod  appeared  at  Lewiston  one  day  in  Novem- 
ber, 1840,  and  boasted  that  he  was  one  of  the  at- 
tacking party  and  had  shot  Amos  Durfee.  For 
this  he  was  arrested  on  the  charge  of  arson  and 


SECRETARY  OF   STATE  265 

murder  and  indicted  by  the  grand  jury  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1841.  Meantime  Mr.  Fox,  the  British  min- 
ister, who  in  1838  treated  the  burning  of  the  Caro- 
line as  the  unauthorized  act  of  private  individuals, 
and  described  the  Caroline  as  a  boat  of  "piratical 
character, "  now  demanded  the  instant  release  of 
McLeod,  because  the  destruction  of  this  steam- 
boat was  a  public  act  of  persons  in  his  Majesty's 
service,  obeying  the  orders  of  their  superiors.  Mr. 
Fox  was  then  writing  without  authority.  But  in 
February  Lord  Palmerston  assumed  responsibil- 
ity for  the  deed,  declaring  that  "  McLeod 's  execu- 
tion would  produce  war— war  immediate  and 
frightful  in  its  character,  because  it  would  be 
a  war  of  retaliation  and  revenge ' ' ;  and  on  March 
12,  1841,  Mr.  Fox  formally  demanded  McLeod 's 
release  in  the  name  of  Great  Britain.  The  dec- 
laration that  the  invasion  of  our  soil  and  the 
burning  of  the  Caroline  were  acts  authorized  by 
Great  Britain,  the  demand  for  the  instant  release 
of  the  prisoner,  and  the  threat  of  war  gave  to  the 
incident  a  serious  character  which  Webster  was 
not  ready  to  meet.  He  put  on  a  bold  front,  how- 
ever, and  then  did  all  he  could  to  secure  the  release 
of  McLeod.  The  attorney-general  was  sent  with 
all  haste  to  New  York  with  "authentic  evidence 
of  the  recognition  by  the  British  government  of 
the  destruction  of  the  Caroline  as  an  act  of  public 
force,  done  by  national  authority."  He  was  to 
"proceed  to  Lockport,  or  wherever  else  the  trial 


266  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

may  be  holden,  and  furnish  the  prisoner's  counsel 
with  the  evidence."  He  was  to  "see  that  he  have 
skilful  and  eminent  counsel,  if  such  be  not  already 
retained";  and  he  was  to  say  to  them  "that  it  is 
the  wish  of  this  government  that,  in  case  his  de- 
fense be  overruled  by  the  court  in  which  he  shall 
be  tried,  proper  steps  be  taken  immediately  for 
removing  the  cause,  by  writ  of  error,  to  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States."  A  letter  was 
then  written  to  William  H.  Seward,  Governor  of 
New  York. 

"The  President,"  said  Webster,  "has  learned, 
not  directly,  but  by  means  of  a  letter  from  a  friend, 
that  you  had  expressed  a  disposition  to  direct  a 
nolle  prosequi  in  the  case  of  the  indictment  against 
McLeod,  on  being  informed  by  this  government 
that  the  British  government  had  officially  avowed 
the  attack  on  the  Caroline  as  an  act  done  by  its  own 
authority. 

6 '  The  President  directs  me  to  express  his  thanks 
for  the  promptitude  with  which  you  appear  dis- 
posed to  perform  an  act  which  he  supposes  proper 
for  the  occasion,  and  which  is  calculated  to  relieve 
this  government  from  embarrassments  and  the 
country  from  some  dangers  of  collision  with  a  for- 
eign power. 

"You  will  have  seen  Mr.  Crittenden,  whom  I 
take  this  occasion  to  commend  to  your  kindest 
regard. ' ' 

Governor  Seward  replied  that  he  had  "neither 


SECRETARY  OF   STATE  267 

expressed  nor  entertained  the  disposition  to  direct 
a  nolle  prosequi"  in  the  case  of  McLeod,  bnt  told 
the  attorney-general  that  he  would  pardon  the  pris- 
oner if  found  guilty;  that  there  should  be  no  exe- 
cution, no  war.  Webster,  however,  was  not  con- 
tent with  such  an  answer.  Letters  from  Lewis 
Cass,  the  American  minister  at  Paris,  assured  him 
that  Great  Britain  was  in  earnest;  that  it  was  no 
secret  that  her  minister  had  been  instructed  to  leave 
Washington  if  McLeod  was  hanged ;  that  the  Brit- 
ish fleet  in  the  Mediterranean  was  to  assemble  grad- 
ually at  Gibraltar  and  sail  thence  to  Halifax;  and 
that  the  English  colony  in  Paris  was  heartily  in 
favor  of  war,  which  would  be  fought  with  great 
bitterness.  That  our  own  countrymen  were  quite 
as  ready  was  likewise  no  secret;  for  the  report  of 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  made  in  Feb- 
ruary, on  the  letters  of  Mr.  Fox  was  far  from 
pacific,  and  during  the  debate  on  printing  the  re- 
port feeling  ran  high.  If  war  was  to  be  averted, 
the  trial  must  be  prevented ;  and,  as  one  way  to  pre- 
vent it,  Webster,  in  his  reply  to  Mr.  Fox,  observed 
that  the  indictment  had  been  removed  into  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  New  York,  and  that  it  was  "now 
competent  for  McLeod,  by  the  ordinary  process  of 
habeas  corpus,  to  bring  his  case  for  hearing  before 
that  tribunal. ' '  The  hint  was  taken ;  the  writ  was 
sued  out,  and  the  first  intimation  Seward  had  of 
this  fact  was  when  the  prisoner  passed  through 
Albany  in  charge  of  the  sheriff  to  attend  the  sitting 


268  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

of  the  court  at  New  York.  Seward  bade  the  attor- 
ney-general of  New  York  resist  the  motion  for  the 
discharge  of  McLeod.  The  federal  government 
permitted  the  district  attorney  to  act  as  one  of  the 
counsel  for  McLeod,  and  the  case  was  looked  on 
by  the  people  as  a  struggle  between  the  State  and 
federal  governments.  At  this  stage  the  State  tri- 
umphed, the  discharge  was  refused,  and  the  indict- 
ment was  sent  down  to  the  Circuit  Court,  there  to 
be  traversed. 

Both  President  and  secretary  were  greatly  dis- 
appointed. A  speedy  trial,  if  trial  there  must  be, 
was  most  desirable.  Every  postponement,  every 
delay,  meant  a  new  cause  of  irritation  to  Great 
Britain,  raised  the  angry  feelings  of  the  people 
along  the  border  to  a  yet  higher  pitch,  and  made 
the  Hunters'  Lodges  and  the  Patriotic  Societies 
along  the  frontier  from  Maine  to  Wisconsin  more 
active  than  ever.  So  grave  did  the  danger  from 
this  source  seem  that  the  secretary  thought  it  well 
worth  while  to  investigate  the  doings  of  these  clubs 
by  every  means  in  his  power.  An  agent  was  sent 
to  confer  with  the  army  officers  at  Buffalo,  Cleve- 
land, and  Detroit;  the  collectors,  marshals,  and  dis- 
trict attorneys  along  the  border  were  called  on  to 
tell  all  they  knew,  and  from  these  sources  Webster 
was  soon  able  to  advise  the  President  what  to  do. 
"I  think,' '  he  wrote,  "I  have  learned  pretty  fully 
the  real  object  and  plan  of  open  action  of  these 
'Hunters'    Lodges,'    'Patriotic    Societies,'    etc., 


SECRETARY  OF   STATE  269 

which  are  in  existence  all  along  the  northern  fron- 
tier from  Maine  to  Wisconsin. 

"They  are  in  constant  correspondence  with  the 
disaffected  in  Canada,  and  these  disaffected  persons 
come  over  the  line  and  harangue  them  in  their 
secret  meetings.  They  do  not  expect  to  be  able  to 
invade  Canada  with  any  hope  of  success  unless 
war  breaks  out  between  Canada  and  the  United 
States;  but  they  desire  that  event  above  all  things, 
and,  to  bring  it  about,  will  naturally  join  in  any 
violence  or  outbreak  if  they  think  they  can  do  so 
with  impunity.  They  may  even  attempt  violence 
upon  McLeod,  should  he  be  discharged  by  the  courts 
or  on  his  way  from  the  prison  to  the  place  where 
the  court  shall  be  sitting. 

' '  The  aggregate  of  the  members  of  all  these  clubs 
is  probably  not  less  than  ten  thousand.  Cleveland 
is  rather  their  headquarters. 

"If  war  breaks  out,  these  persons  do  not  propose 
to  join  the  forces  of  the  United  States,  but  to  unite 
themselves  to  the  disaffected  in  Canada,  declare  the 
provinces  free,  and  set  up  another  government. 

"I  am  told  that  regimental  officers  are  already 
designated  for  the  command  of  these  volunteers. 

"That  such  as  above  described  is  the  real  state 
of  things  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

"It  is  evidently  full  of  danger,  and  I  am  quite 
surprised  at  the  apparent  ignorance  or  supineness 
of  the  government  of  New  York,  who  represent, 
evidently,  that  there  is  no  danger  of  any  violence. 


270  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

"Our  duty  is,  I  think,  in  the  first  place,  to  have 
officers  all  along  the  frontier  in  whom  we  have  con- 
fidence, and  to  let  them  understand  that  there  is 
danger. 

"In  the  next  place,  it  becomes  us  to  take  all  pos- 
sible care  that  no  personal  violence  be  used  on 
McLeod.  If  a  mob  should  kill  him,  war  would  be 
inevitable  in  ten  days.    Of  this  there  is  no  doubt. 

"I  regret  that  the  attorney-general  did  not  go 
on  and  confer  with  McLeod 's  counsel,  notwith- 
standing the  postponement  of  the  trial.  They  ap- 
pear to  me  to  be  men  of  no  great  force,  and  who 
place  their  main  reliance  on  being  able  to  prove  an 
alibi  for  their  clients.  But  such  a  defense  does  not 
meet  the  exigency  of  the  case  nor  fulfil  the  duty  of 
this  government. ' ' 

When  the  trial  came  on  at  Utica,  in  October, 
1841,  an  alibi  was  established,  and  McLeod  was  set 
free.  But  the  questions  of  the  inviolability  of  na- 
tional territory  and  of  apology  were  yet  to  be  set- 
tled. 

While  the  trial  of  McLeod  thus  dragged  slowly 
along,  the  angry  feeling  toward  Great  Britain  was 
yet  more  inflamed  by  what  seemed  to  be  a  renewal 
of  her  old  claim  to  the  right  of  search.  For  thirty 
years  and  more  past  she  had  been  engaged  in  a 
most  honorable  endeavor  to  stop  the  African  slave- 
trade,  and  again  and  again  had  made  treaties  with 
European  powers  by  which  British  naval  officers 
might  search  their  merchant  vessels  off  the  coast 


SECRETARY  OF   STATE  271 

of  Africa.  Portugal  and  Spain,  in  1817 ;  the  Neth- 
erlands, in  1818;  Sweden,  in  1824;  and  France,  in 
1831  and  1833,  had  each,  by  treaty,  granted  her  this 
privilege,  but  our  own  country  never  would  con- 
sent. As  a  consequence,  our  flag  was  used  by 
slavers  of  all  nations,  and  the  sight  of  it  off  the 
African  coast  aroused  suspicions  as  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  ship.  For  this  reason  it  happened 
that  in  1841  some  American  merchantmen  were 
seized  by  British  cruisers  and  held  as  slavers.  In 
the  correspondence  which  followed,  Lord  Palm- 
erston  claimed  a  right  for  British  cruisers  to  visit 
and  search  ships  carrying  our  flag  in  order  to  as- 
certain their  national  character,  avowed  the  in- 
tention of  his  government  to  exercise  this  right, 
and  declared  that  such  examination  was  absolutely 
necessary;  and  so  the  matter  stood  when  Webster 
became  Secretary  of  State. 

Meantime,  the  interstate  slave-trade  afforded  a 
new  cause  of  irritation.  While  the  brig  Creole, 
loaded  with  slaves,  was  on  her  way  from  Hampton 
to  New  Orleans,  the  negroes  rose,  killed  one  man, 
shut  the  crew  in  the  hold,  took  possession  of  the 
vessel,  and  brought  her  into  the  British  West  In- 
dian port  of  Nassau.  There  a  few  of  the  slaves 
were  held  for  murder,  and  the  rest  were  set  free. 
This  incident,  following  hard  upon  like  action  in 
the  cases  of  the  Comet,  the  Encomium,  and  the  En- 
terprise, inflamed  the  South  and  added  new  recruits 
to  the  party  eager  for  war. 


272  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

Finally  the  old  question  of  the  northeast  boun- 
dary, which  had  been  tormenting  the  people  of 
Maine  since  1783,  reached  a  pass  where  an  appeal 
to  force  seemed  almost  at  hand. 

Dark  as  the  prospect  was  when  Webster  went 
into  office,  a  great  change  for  the  better  had  already 
taken  place.  Lord  Melbourne 's  administration  had 
been  beaten  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  in 
August,  1841,  he  and  his  colleagues  had  resigned; 
Lord  Palmerston  had  been  succeeded  by  Lord 
Aberdeen  as  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs;  Mr. 
Stevenson,  our  minister  at  London,  had  resigned, 
and  Mr.  Everett  had  been  appointed  in  his  stead; 
and  from  him,  in  January,  1842,  came  the  pleasing 
intelligence  that  Lord  Ashburton  would  be  sent 
to  Washington,  as  special  minister,  to  settle  the 
boundary  and  all  other  questions  in  dispute  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 

Most  happily  for  the  peace  of  the  world,  the  two 
men  now  intrusted  with  the  negotiation  on  which 
hung  the  issue  of  war  or  peace  came  to  their  work 
in  a  friendly  spirit,  and  framed  the  treaty  known 
by  their  names.  In  the  settlement  of  the  Caroline 
affair,  Webster  was  far  too  yielding.  All  that  he 
could  wring  from  Lord  Ashburton  was  an  assur- 
ance that  "no  slight  or  disrespect  to  the  sovereign 
authority  of  the  United  States' '  was  intended  by 
the  officers  who  conducted  the  raid;  an  admission 
"that  there  was  in  the  hurried  execution  of  this 
necessary  service  a  violation  of  territory";  and  a 


SECRETARY  OF   STATE  273 

statement  that,  "looking  back  to  what  passed  at 
this  distance  of  time,  what  is,  perhaps,  most  to  be 
regretted  is  that  some  explanation  and  apology  for 
the  occurrence  was  not  immediately  made."  No 
apology,  no  expression  of  regret  of  any  sort,  was 
ever  made;  and  with  this  acknowledgment  that  it 
was  perhaps  to  be  regretted  that  no  apology  was 
made  in  1837,  Webster,  to  his  shame,  was  content. 
"The  President,' '  he  wrote  his  lordship,  "is  con- 
tent to  receive  these  acknowledgments,  .  .  .  and 
will  make  this  subject,  as  a  complaint  of  violation 
of  territory,  the  topic  of  no  further  discussion  be- 
tween the  two  countries." 

To  insert  in  the  treaty  an  article  on  the  subject 
of  impressment  was  found  to  be  impossible,  for 
Lord  Ashburton  had  no  authority  to  make  stipu- 
lations. But  the  occasion  was  taken  to  address 
to  the  British  plenipotentiary  a  letter  which,  as 
Webster  truly  said,  did  not  "leave  the  question 
of  impressment  where  it  found  it, ' '  but ' '  advanced 
the  true  doctrine  in  opposition  to  it  to  a  higher 
and  stronger  foundation";  which  declared  that 
"the  American  government,  then,  is  prepared  to 
say  that  the  practise  of  impressing  American  sea- 
men from  vessels  cannot  hereafter  be  allowed  to 
take  place";  and  which  announced  as  a  principle 
to  be  maintained  by  our  government  this  rule: 
"In  every  regularly  documented  American  mer- 
chant vessel,  the  crew  who  navigate  it  will  find 
their  protection  in  the  flag  which  is  over  them." 


274  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

This  declaration,  said  lie,  "will  stand,  because  it 
announces  the  true  principles  of  public  law;  be- 
cause it  announces  the  great  doctrine  of  the  equal- 
ity and  independence  of  nations  upon  the  seas; 
and  because  it  declares  the  determination  of  the 
government  and  the  people  of  the  United  States 
to  uphold  those  principles  and  to  maintain  that 
doctrine  through  good  report  and  through  evil  re- 
port, forever.  We  shall  negotiate  no  more,  nor 
attempt  to  negotiate  more  about  impressment.  We 
shall  not  treat  hereafter,  of  its  limitations  to  par- 
allels of  latitude  and  longitude.  We  shall  not  treat 
of  its  allowance  or  disallowance  in  broad  seas  or 
narrow  seas.  We  shall  think  no  more  of  stipulat- 
ing for  exemption  from  its  exercise  of  some  of  the 
persons  composing  the  crews.  Henceforth  the  deck 
of  every  American  vessel  is  inaccessible  for  any 
such  purpose.  It  is  protected,  guarded,  defended 
by  the  declaration  which  I  have  read,  and  that 
declaration  will  stand.' ' 

Out  of  the  Caroline  affair  came  the  treaty  pro- 
vision for  the  delivery  to  justice  of  persons  who, 
being  charged  with  murder,  attempt  to  murder, 
piracy,  arson,  robbery,  forgery,  or  the  utterance 
of  forged  paper,  committed  within  the  territories 
of  the  one,  shall  be  found  within  the  territories  of 
the  other.  With  this  piece  of  work  Webster  was 
well  pleased.  "I  undertake  to  say  that  the  arti- 
cle for  the  extradition  of  offenders,  contained  in 
the  treaty  of  1842,  if  there  were  nothing  else  in 
the  treaty  of  any  importance,  has  of  itself  been 


SECRETARY  OF   STATE  275 

of  more  value  to  this  country,  and  is  of  more  value 
to  the  progress  of  civilization,  the  cause  of  human- 
ity, and  the  good  understanding  between  nations, 
than  could  be  readily  computed.  .  .  .  Since 
the  negotiation  of  this  treaty  containing  this  arti- 
cle, we  have  negotiated  treaties  with  other  govern- 
ments of  Europe  containing  similar  provisions, 
and  that  between  other  governments  of  Europe 
themselves,  treaties  have  been  negotiated  contain- 
ing that  provision— a  provision  never  before 
known  to  have  existed  in  any  of  the  treaties  be- 
tween European  nations."  He  was  glad  that  it 
had  "proved  itself  worthy  of  favor  and  imitation 
in  the  judgment  of  the  most  enlightened  nations 
of  Europe ;  and  that  it  has  never  been  complained 
of  by  anybody,  except  by  murderers  and  fugitives 
and  felons  themselves."  Yet  it  was  not  wholly 
new  to  us,  for  Jay's  treaty,  made  in  1794,  contained 
a  provision  for  the  rendition  of  persons  charged 
with  murder  and  forgery. 

The  old  and  vexed  question  of  the  suppression 
of  the  African  slave  trade,  so  often  linked  with  that 
of  search,  was  settled  by  an  agreement  that  each 
party  should  keep  in  service  off  the  coast  a  squad- 
ron of  not  less  than  eighty  guns,  and  that  the  two 
fleets  should  act  in  concert  when  necessary. 

The  boundary  dispute  was  put  at  rest  by  the 
determination  of  a  conventional  line  and  the  pay- 
ment to  Maine  and  Massachusetts  of  large  sums 
of  money. 

The  treaty  made  and  ratified  by  the  Senate,  even 


276  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

the  friends  of  Webster  cried  out  that  the  time  had 
come  for  him  to  leave  the  cabinet,  and  were  joined 
by  the  whole  Whig  press.  After  his  old-time  fash- 
ion, he  now  turned  to  his  friends  for  advice.  Said 
one:  "Your  best  friends  here  think  there  is  an 
insuperable  difficulty  in  your  continuing  any  longer 
in  President  Tyler's  cabinet/ '  That  there  might 
be  no  doubt  where  he  stood,  the  State  convention 
of  Massachusetts  Whigs,  when  it  met  in  September, 
read  the  President  out  of  the  party.  The  duty  of 
the  convention  was  to  nominate  candidates  for 
State  offices :  but  it  went  further,  and  by  one  reso- 
lution announced  that  the  misdeeds  of  Tyler  "left 
no  alternative  to  the  Whigs  of  Massachusetts  but 
to  declare,  as  they  do  now  declare,  their  full  and 
final  separation  from  him,,;  and  in  another  reso- 
lution presented  Henry  Clay  to  the  Whigs  of  the 
State  as  justly  entitled  to  their  suffrages  "for  the 
first  office  in  the  gift  of  the  American  people.,, 

On  the  other  hand,  strangers,  men  whose  opinion 
he  had  not  asked,  wrote  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try urging  him  not  to  quit  the  Department  of  State. 
Some  friends  in  Boston  tendered  a  dinner,  that  a 
chance  might  be  given  him  to  speak  in  self-defense ; 
but  he  asked  that  the  dinner  be  changed  to  a  public 
reception,  and  in  September,  1842,  delivered  the 
"Hard  to  Coax"  speech  in  Faneuil  Hall.  He 
needed  just  such  a  defense,  and  he  made  it  man- 
fully. To  the  clamor  for  his  resignation  he  replied : 
"You  know,  gentlemen,  that  twenty  years  of  hon- 


ALEXANDER  BARING,    LORD    ASHBURTON. 


SECBETAKY  OF  STATE  279 

est  and  not  altogether  undistinguished  service  in 
the  Whig  cause  did  not  save  me  from  an  outpour- 
ing of  wrath  which  seldom  proceeds  from  Whig 
presses  and  Whig  tongues  against  anybody.  I  am, 
gentlemen,  a  little  hard  to  coax;  but  as  to  being 
driven,  that  is  out  of  the  question.  I  chose  to  trust 
my  own  judgment,  and  thinking  I  was  at  a  post 
where  I  was  in  the  service  of  my  country  and  could 
do  it  good,  I  stayed  there.  ...  No  man  feels 
more  highly  the  advantage  of  the  advice  of  friends 
than  I  do ;  but  on  a  question  so  delicate  and  impor- 
tant as  this  I  like  to  choose  myself  the  friends  who 
are  to  give  me  advice;  and  upon  this  subject,  gen- 
tlemen, I  shall  leave  you  as  enlightened  as  I  found 
you. 

' l  I  give  no  pledge ;  I  make  no  intimation  one  way 
or  the  other;  and  I  will  be  as  free,  when  this  day 
closes,  to  act,  as  duty  calls,  as  I  was  when  the  dawn 
of  this  day—  "  The  rest  of  the  sentence  was  lost 
in  an  outburst  of  applause. 

To  the  State  convention  of  Massachusetts  Whigs, 
which  said  that  he  was  not  to  be  their  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  he  uttered  this  defiance :  '  '  I  no- 
tice a  declaration,  made  in  behalf  of  all  the  Whigs 
of  this  commonwealth,  of  a  full  and  final  separation 
from  the  President  of  the  United  States.  If  those 
gentlemen  saw  fit  to  express  their  own  sentiments 
to  that  extent,  there  is  no  objection.  Whigs  speak 
their  sentiments  everywhere ;  but  whether  they  may 
assume  a  privilege  to  speak  for  others  on  a  point 

16 


280  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

on  which  those  others  have  not  given  them  author- 
ity, is  another  matter.  ...  I  am  quite  ready 
to  submit  to  all  decisions  of  Whig  conventions  on 
subjects  on  which  they  are  authorized  to  make  de- 
cisions. But  it  is  quite  another  question  whether 
a  set  of  gentlemen,  however  respectable  they  may 
be  as  individuals,  shall  have  the  power  to  bind  me 
on  matters  which  I  have  not  agreed  to  submit  to 
their  decision  at  all.  .  .  .  And  in  regard  to 
the  individual  who  addresses  you— what  do  his 
brother  Whigs  mean  to  do  with  him?  Where  do 
they  mean  to  place  me?  This  declaration  an- 
nounces a  full  and  final  separation  between  the 
Whigs  of  Massachusetts  and  the  President.  If  I 
choose  to  remain  in  the  cabinet,  do  those  gentlemen 
mean  to  say  that  I  cease  to  be  a  Whig  1  I  am  quite 
ready  to  put  that  question  to  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts. ' ' 

As  the  speech,  copied  by  one  newspaper  from 
another,  spread  through  the  country,  murmurs  of 
indignation  went  up  from  the  Whigs.  He  was  too 
great  a  man,  they  had  been  too  proud  of  him,  his 
services  had  been  too  signal,  to  make  it  safe  to  turn 
on  him  and  with  abuse  drive  him  from  the  party; 
yet  they  made  him  feel  their  high  displeasure. 
' 'You  see  what  a  dust  my  speech  has  raised/ '  he 
wrote  his  son  Fletcher.  **It  is  no  more  than  I  an- 
ticipated. I  am  sorry  the  i  Intelligencer '  is  acting 
so  foolishly,  but  that  is  its  own  affair.    The  speech 


SECRETARY  OF  STATE  281 

is  printing  in  pamphlet  form  in  Boston,  and  will 
be  widely  circulated." 

There  were  other  newspapers  than  the  "Intelli- 
gencer" that  commented  on  his  speech.  "If  Mr. 
Webster,"  said  one,  "thinks  he  can  dictate  to  the 
Whig  convention  of  Massachusetts,  he  will  find 
that  he  far  overestimates  the  amount  of  his  influ- 
ence here."  "We  will  tell  him,"  said  another, 
"what  his  Whig  brethren  have  done  with  him:  they 
have  nominated  Henry  Clay  for  the  Presidency, 
and  Massachusetts,  as  sure  as  she  exists  in  1844, 
will  give  her  electoral  vote  to  that  candidate." 
' '  Mr.  Webster, ' '  said  a  third,  * '  continues  to  vouch 
for  the  Whiggery  of  Mr.  Tyler ;  but  who  will  vouch 
for  the  voucher  f "  "  If , "  said  another,  ' '  he  wishes 
to  share  the  fate  of  Mr.  Tyler,  and  go  with  him  to 
support  John  C.  Calhoun,  he  is  a  free  agent ;  if  he 
wishes  to  give  Whig  principles  and  Whig  men  the 
benefit  of  his  commanding  eloquence,  he  will  be 
welcomed  back  to  those  ranks  long  honored  by  his 
presence  and  his  labors."  Mr.  Berrien  of  Georgia 
told  a  Whig  meeting  in  New  York  that  he  had 
rather  be  a  dog  and  bay  the  moon  than  submit 
as  Webster  recommended;  and  the  meeting  said 
' '  Amen  and  amen ! ' '  Some  thought  the  speech  in- 
dicated that  he  would  leave  the  cabinet ;  others  that 
he  would  stay,  as  there  were  many  more  interna- 
tional difficulties  to  settle. 

Not  the  least  among  these  was  the  Oregon  boun- 


282  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

dary,  which  might  have  been  settled  in  the  treaty 
had  not  the  President  thought  fit  to  join  to  it  other 
issues  which  could  not  be  hastily  discussed.  The 
plan  of  Tyler  was  that  Great  Britain  should  per- 
suade Mexico  to  acknowledge  the  independence  of 
Texas  and  sell  us  California  from  latitude  42°  to 
36°  31' ;  that  she  should  pay  a  part  of  the  cost,  and 
in  return  take  Oregon  as  far  south  as  the  Columbia 
River ;  and  that  Webster  should  go  to  London  on  a 
special  mission,  with  those  ends  in  view.  To  this  the 
Senate  would  not  consent.  An  effort  was  then  made 
to  persuade  Mr.  Everett  to  take  the  newly  created 
Chinese  mission,  and  send  Webster  to  London  as 
Mr.  Everett's  successor.  This  too  failed,  and  early 
in  May  the  "National  Intelligencer ' '  announced 
that  Daniel  Webster  had  resigned  the  office  of  Sec- 
retary of  State.  For  months  past  the  newspapers 
had  been  asserting  and  then  denying  that  he  would 
surely  leave  the  cabinet;  but  now,  to  the  joy  of  the 
Locofocos  and  the  Democrats,  the  report  was  true. 
"There  is  now  nothing  to  disturb  the  unanimity 
of  the  cabinet  councils,' '  said  a  Democratic  jour- 
nal, "and  the  administration  may  henceforth  be 
regarded  as  a  unit  in  sentiment,  principles,  and  pur- 
poses." Another  spread  abroad  the  report  that 
the  President's  son  had  said,  "We  have  got  rid  of 
Webster  at  last."  That  his  resignation  had  been 
forced,  that  the  President  and  his  Secretary  had 
parted  bad  friends,  was  long  believed,  but  was  not 
true.     The  attacks  of  the  Whig  press,  the  wide- 


SECRETARY  OF   STATE  283 

spread  belief  that  lie  was  no  longer  a  Whig,  the 
effect  this  belief  might  Jiave  on  his  chances  of  se- 
curing the  Presidential  nomination  sometime  in  the 
future,  the  determination  of  Tyler  to  take  up  the 
question  of  annexing  Texas,  and  the  failure  to  se- 
cure the  English  mission,  were  the  causes  which 
induced  him  to  leave  the  cabinet. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

LONGING   FOR   THE   PRESIDENCY 

WEBSTER  was  now,  for  the  first  time  in  fif- 
teen years,  a  private  citizen.  That  he 
should  ever  again  return  to  public  life  seemed  far 
from  likely.  He  had  passed  his  sixtieth  birthday, 
his  private  affairs  were  in  disorder,  and  he  was 
free  to  enjoy  the  delights  of  Marshfield,  which  was 
to  him  the  dearest  spot  on  earth.  But  his  friends 
opposed  his  retirement.  Some  insisted  that  he 
must  remove  all  doubt  as  to  his  Whiggery,  and  sent 
him  as  a  delegate  to  the  Whig  convention  at  An- 
dover,  before  which  he  again  spoke  in  defense  of 
his  conduct.  Others  in  New  Hampshire  asked  that 
they  might  present  his  name  to  the  people  as  a  can- 
didate for  the  Presidency.  Still  others,  in  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Massachusetts,  tendered  him  a  re- 
election to  the  United  States  Senate,  in  place  of 
Mr.  Choate,  who  wished  to  resign.  To  this  he 
answered  that  he  would  not  affect  to  deny  that  he 
much  preferred  public  employment  to  returning 
to  the  bar  at  his  time  of  life ;  but  his  affairs  needed 
attention,  he  must  make  a  living,  and  he  could  ill 
afford  to  go  back  to  the  Senate  and  lose  the  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  a  year  yielded  by  his  practice. 

284 


LONGING  FOE  THE  PRESIDENCY    287 

Until  March  4,  1845,  at  least,  when  Mr.  Choate's 
term  would  expire,  it  was,  he  said,  far  more  impor- 
tant to  him  to  remain  in  private  life  than  it  could 
be  to  the  nation  that  he  should  return  to  the  Senate. 

Never  was  he  more  mistaken,  for  an  event  that 
he  had  often  contemplated  with'  dread  was  near  at 
hand.  As  the  campaign  opened,  the  two  prospec- 
tive candidates,  Clay  and  Van  Buren,  had  earnestly 
striven  to  put  the  Texas  question  out  of  politics; 
but  Tyler,  just  before  the  nominating  conventions 
met,  surprised  the  Senate  with  a  treaty  of  annexa- 
tion secretly  negotiated  with  the  Texan  agent,  and 
made  annexation  the  issue  of  the  day. 

Scarcely  was  this  done  when  the  Whig  National 
Convention  met  at  Baltimore  and  nominated  Clay, 
not  by  ballot,  but  with  a  shout  that  shook  the  build- 
ing. The  next  day  the  Whigs  held  a  great  ratifica- 
tion meeting,  before  which  Webster  appeared  to 
make  his  peace  with  the  party.  Again  he  solemnly 
declared  himself  a  Whig,  spoke  of  Clay  in  the 
warmest  terms,  was  glad  to  present  the  great  lead- 
er 's  name  to  the  country  as  the  Whig  candidate  for 
the  Presidency,  and  knew  of  no  question  before  the 
people  on  which  he  did  not  agree  with  the  candi- 
date. The  wild  cheers  that  greeted  Webster  gave 
assurance  that  he  was  forgiven,  and  expressed  con- 
fidence that  the  reunited  and  harmonious  party  was 
now  sure  of  victory.  This  confidence  was  much 
disturbed  when  the  Democratic  convention,  a  few 
weeks  later,  rejected  Van  Buren,  nominated  Polk, 


288  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

and  demanded  the  annexation  of  Texas.  Polk  was 
an  almost  unknown  man,  and  that  he  should  de- 
feat Harry  of  the  West  seemed  laughable.  But  the 
demand  for  Texas  was  serious,  for  now  the  Whigs 
must  meet  that  issue  or  take  the  consequence  of 
their  silence.  Webster,  in  his  campaign  speech  at 
Valley  Forge,  spoke  plainly  and  to  the  point.  He 
was  opposed  to  annexation.  But  Clay  undertook 
to  explain,  sent  off  his  Alabama  letter,  and  wrote 
himself  out  of  the  Presidency.  The  defeat  of  Clay 
stunned  the  Whigs  and  elated  the  Democrats,  who, 
carried  away  by  their  triumph,  passed  the  joint 
resolution  under  which  Texas  entered  the  Union 
as  a  slave  State. 

To  Webster's  plea  that  it  was  not  important  to 
the  country  that  he  should  return  to  public  life  the 
Whigs  of  Massachusetts  would  now  no  longer  lis- 
ten, and  on  March  4,  1845,  he  once  more  took  his 
seat  in  the  Senate,  as  the  successor  of  Rufus  Choate, 
who  was  a  native  of  Essex,  Massachusetts,  and  a 
student  at  Dartmouth  College  when  Webster  deliv- 
ered his  great  speech  in  the  Dartmouth  College 
case.  We  are  told  that  Mr.  Choate  was  so  power- 
fully affected  by  the  argument  that  he  determined 
to  study  law,  a  profession  in  which,  in  time,  he 
won  a  reputation  as  an  advocate  second  to  none. 

The  influence  of  Webster  over  Choate,  thus  early 
acquired,  was  never  lost ;  and  in  their  later  political 
careers  the  two  men  were  closely  allied.  When 
Webster  left  the  Senate  in  1841;  Choate  became  his 


LONGING  FOR   THE  PEESIDENCY  289 

successor;  when  Choate  left  the  Senate  in  1845, 
Webster  in  turn  succeeded  him ;  and  in  1852  it  was 
Choate  who  urged  the  nomination  of  Webster  for 
the  Presidency  before  the  Whig  National  Conven- 
tion at  Baltimore. 

The  annexation  of  Texas  brought  war  with  Mex- 
ico ;  the  victories  of  Taylor  and  Scott,  Kearny  and 
Stockton,  brought  a  chance  to  secure  more  terri- 
tory; fear  that  the  new  acquisition  might  be  made 
slave  soil  called  forth  the  Wilmot  Proviso ;  and  the 
great  struggle  for  the  rights  of  man  was  on  once 
more. 

During  the  summer  of  1846,  President  Polk 
asked  Congress  for  two  million  dollars  "for  the 
purpose  of  settling  all  our  difficulties  with  the  Mex- 
ican Republic. ' '  Well  knowing  that  it  was  intended 
to  use  the  money  to  obtain  a  land  cession  from 
Mexico,  David  Wilmot  moved  an  amendment  to 
the  bill,  providing  that  from  all  territory  ceded  by 
Mexico  slavery  should  forever  be  excluded.  The 
House  passed  the  bill  and  proviso,  but  the  Senate 
struck  out  the  proviso,  and  the  House  refused  to 
concur.  The  bill  was  lost ;  and  when  Congress  met 
again  a  new  bill  carrying  a  three-million-dollar  ap- 
propriation was  presented  to  the  House,  and  the 
proviso  was  once  more  added.  This  was  directly 
in  accord  with  Webster's  anti-expansion  views, 
and  a  fortnight  later  he  laid  upon  the  table  of  the 
Senate  two  resolutions:  the  one  set  forth  that  war 
ought  not  to  be  waged  with  Mexico  for  the  purpose 


290  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

of  acquiring  new  territory  out  of  which  to  form 
new  States  to  be  added  to  the  Union ;  the  other  that 
Mexico  ought  to  be  told  that  the  United  States  did 
not  want  her  territory,  and  would  treat  for  peace 
on  a  liberal  basis.  A  couple  of  weeks  later,  when 
a  resolution  much  like  his  was  put  and  voted  down, 
he  spoke  out:  "It  is  due  to  the  best  interests  of 
the  country,  to  its  safety,  to  its  peace  and  harmony, 
and  to  the  well-being  of  the  Constitution,  to  de- 
clare at  once,  to  proclaim  now,  that  we  want  no 
new  States,  nor  territory  to  form  new  States  out  of, 
as  the  end  of  conquest.' '  He  was  not  opposed  to 
a  change  in  the  boundary,  to  such  a  change  as 
would  give  us  the  port  of  San  Francisco.  He  was 
in  favor  of  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  and  voted  for  it 
when  the  bill  with  it  attached  came  before  the  Sen- 
ate. Indeed,  in  the  autumn,  when  speaking  to  a 
Whig  convention  at  Springfield,  he  claimed  to  have 
been  its  discoverer.  "We  hear  much,  just  now," 
he  said,  "of  a  panacea  for  the  dangers  and  evils 
of  slavery  and  slave  annexation,  which  they  call 
the  Wilmot  Proviso.  ...  I  feel  some  little  in- 
terest in  this  matter,  sir.  Did  I  not  commit  myself, 
in  1837,  to  the  whole  doctrine,  fully,  entirely!  And 
I  must  be  permitted  to  say  that  I  cannot  quite  con- 
sent that  more  recent  discoverers  should  claim  the 
merit  and  take  out  the  patent.  I  deny  the  priority 
of  their  invention.  Allow  me  to  say,  sir,  it  is  not 
their  thunder. ' ' 

The  world  of  politics  was  now  in  utter  confusion. 


LONGING  FOE  THE  PRESIDENCY   291 

Both  the  great  parties  were  breaking  up,  and  from 
the  fragments  that  fell  off  a  host  of  little  organi- 
zations, "movements"  as  they  were  called,  were 
forming.  Never  before  in  our  annals  had  so  many 
candidates  been  nominated  by  the  people.  Native 
Americans,  the  Liberty  party,  the  Liberty  League, 
the  Industrial  Congress,  Barnburners,  Free-soilers, 
Whigs,  and  Democrats  had  each  named  a  candi- 
date of  their  own  or  had  indorsed  one  of  some  other 
party's  choosing. 

After  the  defeat  of  Clay  in  1844,  it  did  seem  as 
if  Webster 's  hour  had  really  come,  and  that  he  was 
the  only  available  leader  the  Whig  party  could  offer 
for  the  Presidency  in  1848.  Clay,  it  is  true,  was 
never  more  idolized;  but  his  enemies  were  many 
and  active,  his  views  on  the  extension  of  slavery 
were  opposed  to  the  growing  convictions  of  North- 
ern Whigs,  while  even  his  warmest  friends  had 
grown  very  tired  of  following  him  always  to  de- 
feat. A  new  man  was  wanted ;  might  not  Webster 
be  that  man?  His  belief  that  slavery  was  a  State 
institution  and  could  not  be  meddled  with  by  Con- 
gress made  him  acceptable  to  Southern  Whigs. 
His  services,  his  abilities,  his  devotion  to  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  Union,  were  the  admiration  of 
Northern  Whigs.  His  opposition  to  expansion,  to 
the  acquisition  of  more  slave  soil,  might  well  bring 
to  his  support  thousands  of  old-line  Whigs  who 
had  been  driven  by  the  conduct  of  Clay  into  the 
ranks  of  the  Liberty  party.    But  the  prospect,  fair 


292  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

as  it  was,  proved  a  delusion.  Webster  did  not 
possess  one  of  the  attributes  of  a  popular  leader. 
The  very  greatness  of  his  abilities  raised  him  far 
above  the  mass  of  men,  and  put  him  out  of  touch 
with  them.  He  inspired  awe,  but  not  affection. 
No  mortal  man  ever  thought  of  coupling  his  name 
with  any  epithet  of  popular  endearment,  Jackson 
was  * '  Old  Hickory, "  "  Old  Roman ' ' ;  Harrison  was 
"Old  Tip";  Clay  was  "Harry  of  the  West,"  "the 
Mill-boy  of  the  Slashes";  and  Taylor  "Old  Rough- 
and-Ready":  but  the  senator  from  Massachusetts 
was  "the  Hon.  Daniel  Webster"  to  his  dying  day. 
Even  the  cartoonists  could  find  no  other  name  for 
him  than  "Black  Dan."  It  was  to  "Rough-and- 
Ready,"  therefore,  and  not  to  Daniel  Webster,  that 
the  Whig  masses  turned  in  1848,  when  they  were 
done  with  Henry  Clay. 

That  the  hero  of  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la 
Palma  and  Monterey  and  Buena  Vista  would  be 
nominated  by  the  Whigs  was  certain  as  early  as 
the  spring  of  1847.  "The  probability  now  is," 
Webster  wrote  to  his  son  in  April  of  that  year, 
"that  General  Taylor  will  come  in  President  with 
a  general  rush.  .  .  .  It  is  the  nature  of  man- 
kind to  carry  their  favor  toward  military  achieve- 
ment. No  people  have  ever  been  found  to  resist 
that  tendency."  This  was  quite  true;  yet,  when 
the  time  came  and  the  convention  met,  Webster 
allowed  his  name  to  go  before  it,  though  certain 


LONGING  FOE  THE  PRESIDENCY   293 

of  defeat.  On  the  first  and  second  ballots  he  was 
given  twenty-two  votes  by  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
Massachusetts,  and  New  York.  On  the  third  bal- 
lot he  lost  one  from  Maine,  three  from  Massachu- 
setts, and  the  one  from  New  York.  On  the  fourth 
and  last  ballot  another  vote  from  Maine  and  two 
from  New  Hampshire  left  him,  and  Taylor  was 
triumphantly  nominated.  The  candidate  having 
been  named,  member  after  member  rose  to  prom- 
ise his  support  to  the  nominee,  and  among  those 
who  secured  recognition  from  the  chair  was  Mr. 
Allen,  a  Conscience  Whig  of  Massachusetts  and  a 
warm  supporter  of  Webster.  "I  think,"  said  he, 
"I  know  something  of  the  feelings  of  my  State; 
I  express  for  myself  what  I  believe  to  be  the  sen- 
timents of  that  State;  and  I  say  that  we  cannot 
consent  that  this  should  go  forth  as  the  unani- 
mous vote  of  this  convention,  and  I  will  give  my 
reasons. ' '  ' '  Amidst  cries, ' '  says  the  reporter,  ' '  of 
'Sit  down!'  'Order!'  'Hear  him!'  'Go  on!'  'Sit 
down!'  'Let  him  go  on!'  we  finally  caught  the 
words:  'The  Whig  party  of  the  North  are  not  to 
be  allowed  to  fill  with  their  statesmen—  ['Sit 
down!'  'Order!'  'Hear  him!']  Therefore  we  de- 
clare the  AVhig  party  of  the  Union  this  day  dis- 
solved.' Cheers  and  hisses  now  rose  in  a  deafen- 
ing shout  from  the  excited  convention.  Member 
after  member  jumped  to  his  feet  to  reply,  but  they 
were  persuaded  by  their  friends  to  refrain.    'Let 


294  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

the  North  answer  him!'  'Let  Massachusetts  an- 
swer him!'  'There  is  better  Whiggery  there  than 
that!'  were  the  shouts  heard  from  all  sides." 

When  some  semblance  of  order  was  at  last  re- 
stored, nominations  were  made  for  the  Vice-Presi- 
dency, in  the  course  of  which  Mr.  Ashmun  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, rising  to  withdraw  the  name  of  Robert 
C.  Winthrop,  denied  that  Mr.  Allen  spoke  the  sense 
of  Massachusetts.  In  a  moment  Henry  Wilson  of 
the  same  State  was  on  his  feet.  ''I,  for  one,  will 
not  be  bound  by  the  proceedings  of  this  conven- 
tion, ' '  he  said.  ' '  We  have  nominated  a  gentleman, 
sir,  for  President  of  the  United  States  who  has 
stated  over  and  over  and  over  again,  to  the  whole 
nation,  that  he  did  not  intend  to  be  bound  by  the 
principles  or  the  measures  of  any  party,  and  that 
he  will  not  accept  the  nomination  of  the  Whig 
party,  or  the  Democratic  party,  or  any  party  in 
any  portion  of  the  country  who  will  nominate  him. 
Sir,  he  has  said—  ['Order,  Mr.  President,  I  call 
the  gentleman  to  order.']  All  I  asked  of  this  con- 
vention was  the  nomination  of  a  Whig  who  is  un- 
reservedly committed  to  the  principles  of  the  Whig 
party.  But  the  convention  has  seen  fit  to  nomi- 
nate a  man  who  is  anything  but  a  Whig;  and,  sir, 
I  will  go  home,  and,  so  help  me  God!  I  will  do 
all  I  can  to  defeat  the  election  of  that  candidate." 

As  for  the  rest  of  the  Massachusetts  Whigs,  the 
cotton  wing  of  the  party,  they  accepted  the  nomi- 
nation and  kept  still.    Mr.  Choate  called  on  them, 


RUFUS  CHOATE. 


LONGING  FOE  THE   PRESIDENCY   297 

"though  grieved  by  the  fall  of  their  favorite 
leader,  pierced  by  a  thousand  wounds/'  to  rally 
about  Taylor.  Mr.  Ashmun  made  a  like  plea,  and 
shrewdly  closed  a  letter  to  his  constituents  with 
Webster's  words  to  a  Whig  convention  in  Faneuil 
Hall :  "  In  the  dark  and  troubled  night  that  is  upon 
us,  I  see  no  star  above  the  horizon  promising  light 
to  guide  us  but  the  intelligent,  patriotic,  united 
Whig  party  of  the  United  States.' ' 

Counsel  of  this  sort,  however,  was  not  for  the 
great  Whig  chief,  and  it  was  long  before  he  could 
bring  himself  to  follow  the  star.  He  was  deeply 
disappointed.  Neither  Vermont  nor  Rhode  Island 
nor  Connecticut  had  cast  one  vote  in  his  behalf; 
even  Whigs  from  his  own  State  had  deserted  him 
for  Taylor :  and  in  the  first  moments  of  displeasure 
he  felt  sorely  tempted  to  stand  aloof.  In  June  he 
wrote  to  his  son  Fletcher,  just  after  the  news  of 
Taylor's  nomination  came:  "Keep  entirely  quiet 
till  I  see  you.  I  suppose  there  will  be  an  emeute, 
but  it  may  be  quite  a  question  whether  you  and  I 
and  our  particular  circle  of  friends  had  not  better 
stand  quite  aloof.  That  is  my  opinion  at  present, 
and  until  we  see  into  things  farther  than  we  can 
at  present.  There  will  probably  be  enough  others 
to  do  the  work.  At  any  rate,  nothing  can  be  gained 
by  sudden  action  or  movement,  and  therefore  by 
no  means  commit  me  or  yourself,  or  our  especial 
and  personal  friends,  till  we  meet  and  can  consult. ' ' 

And  again,  a  few  days  later :  "  I  shall  endeavor 


298  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

to  steer  my  boat  with  discretion,  but  it  is  evident 
that  I  must  say  something,  or  else  it  will  be  said 
for  me  by  others,  and  I  can  see  no  way  but  acqui- 
escence in  Taylor's  nomination— not  enthusiastic 
support,  nor  zealous  approbation,  but  acquiescence, 
or  forbearance  from  opposition.  This  is  in  accor- 
dance with  what  I  said  to  the  "Whigs  in  Boston,  viz. : 
that  I  should  not  recommend  General  Taylor  to 
the  people  for  President,  but  that  if  he  were  fairly 
nominated  by  a  Whig  convention  I  should  not  op- 
pose the  nomination.     I  must  stand  here. ' ' 

From  this  course  of  conduct  his  son  sought  to 
dissuade  him;  but  he  stood  firm,  and  answered: 
1 '  I  am  sorry  that  I  cannot  see  my  way  clear  to  fol- 
low your  advice  entirely.  It  appears  to  me  neces- 
sary that  I  should  express  publicly  either  acquies- 
cence or  dissatisfaction  with  the  nomination.  I 
have  certainly  said  often  that  I  should  not  recom- 
mend General  Taylor ;  but  I  have  said,  too,  always, 
at  the  same  time,  that  I  should  not  oppose  his 
election  if  nominated.  Beyond  that  I  propose  to 
say  nothing,  except  in  favor  of  the  general  Whig 
cause. 

' '  These  Northern  proceedings  can  come  to  noth- 
ing useful  to  you  or  to  me.  The  men  are  all  low 
in  their  objects.  The  Abolitionists  will  adhere  to 
Mr.  Hale.  The  Barnburners  will  nominate  Mr. 
Niles.  If  the  [illegible]  men  at  Worcester  were  to 
ask  to  put  me  on  their  ticket,  what  would  it  all 
come  to  f    I  could  not  consent  to  that,  with  so  little 


LONGING  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY   299 

show  of  strength  as  they  now  put  forth.  On  the 
other  hand,  suppose  I  acquiesce  in  General  Tay- 
lor's nomination.  He  will  or  will  not  be  chosen; 
if  chosen  (as  I  incline  to  think  he  will  be),  it  may 
be  for  your  interests  not  to  have  opposed  him;  as 
to  mine,  it  is  quite  indifferent.  I  have,  for  myself, 
no  object  whatever. 

"If  he  is  not  chosen,  things  can  stand  no  worse. 
Then,  on  the  general  ground,  it  seems  to  me  I  must 
not  in  consistency  abandon  the  support  of  Whig 
principles.  My  own  reputation  will  not  allow  of 
this.  I  cannot  be  silent  without  being  reproached 
when  such  a  case  is  being  pressed  upon  the  country. 

"I  agree  it  is  a  difficult  and  doubtful  question; 
but  I  think  the  safest  way  is  to  overlook  the  nomi- 
nation, as  not  being  the  main  thing,  and  to  con- 
tinue to  maintain  the  Whig  cause. 

"We  shall  see,  but  I  think  we  shall  come  out 
right." 

By  September  this  uncertainty  has  passed  away. 
His  course  is  clear  before  him,  and  Fletcher  is 
assured :  "  I  see  no  way  but  to  fall  in  and  acquiesce. 
The  run  is  all  that  way.  We  can  do  no  good  by 
holding  out.  We  shall  only  isolate  ourselves. 
Northern  opposition  is  too  small  and  narrow  to 
rely  on. 

"I  must  say  something,  somewhere,  soon.  My 
purpose  is  to  enlarge  the  necessity  of  a  change  of 
administration,  to  say  something  of  the  North  and 
its  expectations,  and,  on  the  whole,  to  express  a 

17 


300  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

hope  for  Taylor.  I  must  either  do  this,  or  go  right 
into  opposition." 

Webster  had  now  reached  another  and  the  final 
turning-point  in  his  public  career.  Had  he  been 
wise,  he  would  have  taken  the  turn  which  led  him 
"right  into  opposition."  Judged  in  the  light  of 
every  speech  he  had  made  since  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, he  was  a  Free-soiler,  and  his  place  was 
with  that  party.  So  far  as  principles  were  con- 
cerned, the  platform  of  that  party  might  have  been 
made  up  of  extracts  from  his  own  public  utterances. 

For  a  man  so  minded  the  Whigs  were  not  fit 
companions.  But  Webster  remained  a  Whig,  and, 
as  he  was  obliged  to  speak  out,  accepted  an  invita- 
tion to  address  his  friends  at  Marshfield  in  Septem- 
ber. "My  purpose  in  this  speech,"  he  wrote  a 
friend,  i  l  was  exactly  this :  first,  to  make  out  a  clear 
case  for  all  true  Whigs  to  vote  for  him  [Taylor] ; 
second,  to  place  myself  in  a  condition  of  entire  in- 
dependence, fearing  nothing,  and  hoping  nothing 
personally,  from  his  failure  or  success;  thirdly, 
and  most  especially,  to  show  the  preposterous  con- 
duct of  those  Whigs  who  make  a  secession  from 
their  party  and  take  service  under  Van  Buren." 
Just  why  a  Whig  who  believed  in  the  exclusion 
of  slavery  from  the  Territories,  who  was  opposed 
to  the  formation  of  more  slave  States,  should  vote 
for  Taylor,  a  slaveholder,  rather  than  Van  Buren, 
a  Free-soiler,  he  failed  to  make  clear.  But  when 
he  told  his  neighbors  that  the  nomination  of  Tay- 


LONGING  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY   301 

lor  ' '  stands  by  itself,  without  a  precedent  or  justi- 
fication from  anything  in  our  previous  history"; 
that  it  was  a  nomination  ' '  not  fit  to  be  made ' ' ;  that 
the  "sagacious,  wise,  far-seeing  doctrine  of  avail- 
ability lay  at  the  root  of  the  whole  matter,"  he  suc- 
ceeded, so  far  as  Taylor  was  concerned,  in  placing 
himself  "in  a  condition  of  entire  independence." 
This  he  well  knew,  and  feeling  that  he  could  have 
little  influence  at  Washington,  another  fit  of  politi- 
cal blues  seized  him,  and  he  wrote:  "The  general 
result  of  my  reflections  up  to  the  present  moment 
is  that  it  will  be  most  expedient  for  me  to  leave 
Congress  at  the  end  of  the  session  and  attend  to 
my  own  affairs."  From  the  Slough  of  Despond 
his  friends  raised  him  by  insisting,  after  the  great 
Whig  triumph,  that  he  should  take  his  old  place  at 
the  head  of  the  Department  of  State.  "A  friend 
has  just  said  to  me,  'The  great  question  in  State 
Street  is,  Can  Mr.  Webster  be  prevailed  upon  to 
be  Secretary  of  State?'  My  dear  friend,  I  am  old 
and  poor  and  proud.  All  these  things  beckon  me 
to  retirement,  to  take  care  of  myself —and,  as  I  can- 
not act  the  first  post,  to  act  none."  Yet  he  would 
not  commit  himself  to  a  refusal  of  the  place  should 
it  be  offered,  and  went  to  Washington  in  Decem- 
ber, 1848,  in  a  better  state  of  mind.  During  the 
next  three  months  his  letters  show  a  lingering  hope 
that  the  office  may  be  tendered,  a  well-founded 
doubt  that  it  would  be,  and  an  earnest  desire  to  be 
left  "to  my  profession,  my  studies,  or  my  ease." 


302  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

To  some  extent  this  wish  was  granted.  The  invi- 
tation to  join  the  cabinet  never  came.  Once  more 
a  kind  Fate  preserved  him  for  greater  things.  Had 
he  entered  the  cabinet  of  Taylor,  he  would  have 
been  a  silent  spectator  of  the  struggle  for  the  Com- 
promise of  1850,  and  the  most  famous  of  all  his 
speeches  would  never  have  been  made. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    SEVENTH    OF    MARCH 

WHILE  Webster  thus  waited  and  wondered 
what  Taylor  would  do,  the  South  and  the 
North  were  in  bitter  strife  over  the  territory  wrung 
from  Mexico— the  one  to  open  it  to  slavery,  the 
other  to  keep  it,  as  Mexico  had  made  it  four-and- 
twenty  years  before,  free.  How  to  turn  free  soil 
into  slave  soil  was  a  hard  question  to  settle,  and 
many  plans  were  presented  and  rejected  before 
a  senator  proposed  to  spread  the  Constitution  over 
the  new  Territory  by  act  of  Congress.  This  done, 
all  trouble  would  be  over :  for,  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, slaves  were  property ;  could,  as  such,  be  taken 
into  the  Territory  by  immigrants;  and,  once  in, 
must  be  protected.  With  slaves  in  the  Territory, 
the  institution  of  slavery  would  quickly  follow, 
and  all  trace  of  freedom  be  swept  from  the  soil. 
But  just  here  a  new  difficulty  arose:  Could  the 
Constitution  be  spread  over  the  Territories!  Cal- 
houn declared  it  could  be  so  extended;  Webster 
maintained  that  it  could  not :  and  the  two  fell  into 
a  debate  of  no  little  interest  to  us  at  this  moment. 
The  question  was  the  status,  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, of  newly  acquired  soil.     In  the  opinion  of 

303 


304  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

Webster,  such  territory  was  the  property  of,  not 
part  of,  the  United  States.  The  Constitution  was 
confined  to  the  United  States,  to  the  States  united 
under  it;  was  extended  over  nothing  else,  and 
could  extend  over  nothing,  "  because  a  Territory 
while  a  Territory  does  not  become  a  part,  and  is 
no  part,  of  the  United  States.' '  "The  Constitu- 
tion,' '  said  Calhoun,  "interprets  itself.  It  pro- 
nounces itself  to  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land. ' ' 
"What  land?"  said  Webster.  "The  land,"  was 
Calhoun's  reply.  "The  Territories  of  the  United 
States  are  a  part  of  the  land.  It  is  the  supreme 
law,  not  within  the  limits  of  the  States  of  this 
Union  merely,  but  wherever  our  flag  waves,  wher- 
ever our  authority  goes,  the  Constitution  in  part 
goes;  not  all  its  provisions  certainly,  but  all  its 
suitable  provisions. ' ' 

"The  'land,'  I  take  it,"  said  Webster,  "means 
the  land  over  which  the  Constitution  is  established, 
or,  in  other  words,  it  means  the  States  united  under 
the  Constitution.  The  Constitution  no  more  says 
that  the  Constitution  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of 
the  land  than  it  says  that  the  laws  of  Congress 
shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  It  declares 
that  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  Congress 
passed  under  it  shall  be  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land.  .  .  .  According  to  the  gentleman's  rea- 
soning, the  Constitution  extends  over  the  Terri- 
tories as  supreme  law,  and  no  legislation  on  the 
subject  is  necessary.     This  would  be  tantamount 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH  305 

to  saying  that  the  moment  territory  is  attached  to 
the  United  States,  all  the  laws  of  the  United  States, 
as  well  as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
become  the  governing  rule  of  men's  conduct  and 
of  the  rights  of  property,  because  they  are  declared 
to  be  the  law  of  the  land,  the  laws  of  Congress 
being  the  supreme  law  of  the  land  as  well  as  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  precise 
question  is,  Whether  a  Territory,  while  it  remains 
on  a  territorial  state,  is  a  part  of  the  United  States  I 
I  maintain  that  it  is  not." 

In  the  end  these  views  prevailed.  The  attempt 
to  extend  the  Constitution  failed;  no  government 
was  provided  for  California  or  New  Mexico,  and 
the  question  went  over  to  the  next  Congress.  At 
this  the  South,  firmly  united  on  the  question  of 
slavery  in  the  new  Territories,  grew  alarmed  and 
angry.  The  old  spirit  of  disunion  again  arose, 
threats  of  secession  were  heard  once  more,  and  a 
call  went  out  for  a  State-Rights  convention,  to  meet 
at  Nashville  beside  the  bones  of  Andrew  Jackson. 
All  the  old  grievances  that  the  South  had  against 
the  North  were  revived  and  asserted.  The  failure 
duly  to  execute  the  fugitive-slave  law,  the  ' '  under- 
ground railroad,' '  the  activity  of  the  demand  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  slave-trade  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  were  now  declared  unendur- 
able. To  make  matters  worse,  a  quarrel  broke  out 
between  Texas  and  the  federal  government  over 
the  boundary  of  New  Mexico,  and  the  people  of 


306  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

California,  taking  matters  into  their  own  hands, 
made  a  free- State  constitution,  established  a  State 
government,  and  asked  admission  into  the  Union 
as  a  free  State. 

With  all  these  burning  questions  under  hot  de- 
bate, it  may  well  be  believed  that  the  country 
awaited  the  meeting  of  Congress  with  feelings  of 
no  common  sort.  On  that  body  most  assuredly 
rested  the  momentous  question  of  peace  or  war. 
By  it  was  to  be  decided  whether  the  house  divided 
against  itself  should  stand  or  fall;  whether  there 
should  be  within  the  limits  of  what  was  then  the 
United  States  one  people,  one  government,  one  flag, 
or  two  republics— one  of  States  where  black  men 
were  slaves,  the  other  of  States  where  the  negro 
was  free.  Nor  was  the  Congress  then  assembled 
less  interesting  than  its  work.  Never  had  there 
been  gathered  in  the  two  chambers  so  many  men 
whose  names  later  events  have  made  familiar  to 
us.  In  the  Senate  were  now  brought  together,  for 
the  last  time,  Webster,  Calhoun,  and  Clay,  leaders 
of  the  old  parties,  and  Jefferson  Davis  and  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  soon  to  head  the  wings  of  a  hopelessly 
divided  democracy.  There,  too,  were  Salmon  P. 
Chase  and  William  H.  Seward,  destined  to  become 
chiefs  of  a  party  yet  unformed ;  Hannibal  Hamlin, 
the  first  Vice-President  under  Lincoln;  Samuel 
Houston,  who  led  the  Texans  on  the  field  of  San 
Jacinto,  and  twice  served  as  president  of  that  re- 
public; and  Thomas  Hart  Benton,  now  about  to 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         307 

close  a  term  of  almost  thirty  years  of  continuous 
service  in  the  Senate. 

To  this  distinguished  body  Clay  returned  fully 
determined  to  take  little  part  in  its  proceedings. 
He  would  support  Whig  measures,  but  would  nei- 
ther aid  nor  oppose  the  administration.  He  would 
be  a  calm  looker-on,  rarely  speaking,  and  even  then 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  pouring  oil  on  the  trou- 
bled waters.  But  he  had  not  been  many  days  in 
Washington  before  he  was  convinced  that  the  talk 
of  disunion  was  serious,  that  the  Union  was  really 
in  danger,  that  old  associates  were  turning  to  him, 
and  that  he  must  again  take  his  place  as  leader. 
During  three  weeks  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives wrangled  and  disputed  over  the  choice  of  a 
Speaker,  and  this  time  was  used  by  Clay  to  pre- 
pare a  plan  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  a  compromise. 
By  the  middle  of  January,  1850,  his  work  was 
ready,  and  one  cold  evening  he  called  on  Webster, 
and  went  over  the  scheme,  and  asked  for  aid.  This 
was  conditionally  promised,  and  a  week  later  Clay 
unfolded  his  plan  in  a  set  of  resolutions,  and  at 
the  end  of  another  week  explained  his  purpose  in 
a  great  speech  delivered  before  a  deeply  interested 
audience.  A  rumor  that  he  would  speak  on  a  cer- 
tain day  brought  men  and  women  from  cities  as 
far  away  as  New  York  to  swell  the  crowd  that  filled 
the  Senate  chamber,  choked  every  entrance,  and 
stood  in  dense  masses  in  the  halls  and  passages. 
Fatigue  and  anxiety  were  telling  on  him.    He  could 


308  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

with  difficulty  climb  the  long  flight  of  steps  and 
make  his  way  to  his  place  on  the  floor.  But  the 
eager  faces  of  the  throng,  the  seriousness  of  the 
plea  he  was  about  to  make,  and  the  shouts  of  ap- 
plause that  rose  from  floor  and  gallery  when  he 
stood  up  to  speak,  and  were  taken  up  with  yet 
greater  vigor  by  the  crowd  without,  gave  him  new 
strength.  So  wild  was  the  cheering  of  those  be- 
yond the  chamber  doors,  and  so  long  did  it  con- 
tinue, that  he  could  not  be  heard  in  the  room,  and 
the  president  was  forced  to  order  the  hallways  to 
be  cleared.  Again  Clay  spoke  during  two  days, 
and  on  the  second  showed  such  signs  of  physical 
distress  that  senators  repeatedly  interrupted  him 
with  offers  to  adjourn.  But  he  would  not  yield, 
and  went  on  till  he  had  finished. 

Clay  having  spoken,  it  was  certain  that  Calhoun 
would  follow,  and  letter  after  letter  now  came  to 
Webster  imploring  him  to  raise  his  voice  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Union,  and  speak  as  he  had 
never  done  before. 

t  i  Pardon  this  intrusion  and  the  boldness  implied 
in  this  address,"  wrote  an  earnest  antislavery 
leader.  "I  deprecate  the  appearance  of  presum- 
ing to  give  counsel  to  you,  whom  I  regard  with  sin- 
cere admiration.  But  I  must  bear  the  folly  of  this 
presumption,  for  I  cannot  but  obey  the  impulse 
that  I  have  long  felt  to  express  to  you,  sir,  my  deep 
conviction  that  if  Daniel  Webster  would  only  throw 
that  great  nature  which  heaven  has  given  him  into 


THE   SEVENTH  OF   MARCH         309 

the  great  cause  of  the  world,  the  cause  of  human 
freedom,  his  fellow-citizens,  his  fellow-men,  would 
behold  such  a  demonstration  of  personal  power  as 
is  seldom  given  to  the  world  to  witness.  .  .  . 
You  once  said  of  a  professional  friend,  that  'when 
his  case  was  stated,  it  was  argued.'  Of  no  man 
can  this  be  said  with  more  entire  truth  than  of  you. 
If,  taking  liberty  for  your  light,  you  cast  your 
broad  glance  over  the  history  and  state  of  the  coun- 
try—if, seeing,  as  many  think  you  could  not  fail 
to  see,  how  slavery  has  interfered,  and  is  interfer- 
ing, not  with  the  property,  but  with  the  rights, 
with  the  inmost  hearts  of  freemen,  making  them 
its  tools  and  supporters,  you  were  then  to  tell  the 
country,  in  that  grand  and  simple  way  in  which 
no  man  resembles  you,  what  you  see,  stating  the 
great  case  so  that  it  would  be  argued  once  for  all 
and  forever,  you  would  not  only  render  the  whole 
country,  North  and  South,  the  greatest  possible 
service,  but  you  would  be  conscious  of  a  compen- 
sation in  your  own  being  which  even  your  great 
power  could  not  begin  to  compute.' ' 

As  time  passed  and  Webster  made  no  sign  of  an 
intent  to  speak,  the  appeals  grew  more  urgent. 

' '  Do  it,  Mr.  Webster, ' '  said  an  unknown  admirer, 
'  *  as  you  can  do  it,  like  a  bold  and  gifted  statesman 
and  patriot;  reconcile  the  North  and  South,  and 
preserve  the  Union.  Blessings  will  attend  you  if 
you  succeed,  and  your  name  will  be  embalmed  in 
the  hearts  of  your  countrymen. 


310  DANIEL  WEBSTEB 

"You  will  be  greater  than  he  whom  we  call  the 
Father  of  his  Country.  He  achieved  its  indepen- 
dency through  the  valor  of  our  countrymen  and 
the  aid  of  France.  I  venerate  Washington!  But 
now  the  aspect  is  changed.  He  secured  the  liberty 
of  the  colonies.  Whoever  preserves  the  Union 
secures  the  liberty  of  the  ivorld. 

"Allow  me  in  times  like  these  to  address  you 
in  a  familiar  style.  Offer,  Mr.  Webster,  a  liberal 
compromise  to  the  South,  and,  my  word  for  it,  the 
North  will  sustain  you. 

"Pardon  the  freedom  I  use  in  addressing  you. 
I  am  an  humble  practitioner  of  medicine— a  demo- 
crat—but I  go  for  the  '  Constitution  as  it  is,  and 
the  Union  as  it  is.'  " 

* '  Sir, ' '  wrote  another,  ' '  if  you  make  a  speech  on 
the  Compromise  Bill  that  will  settle  the  contro- 
versy between  the  North  and  South,  please  send 
me  one  of  those  speeches. ' ' 

"I  pray  you,"  said  a  third,  "to  pardon  my  in- 
truding on  you  for  a  moment  at  a  time  when  your 
whole  mind  is  so  much  engrossed  by  the  impor- 
tant events  which  call  for  all  your  thoughts  and 
powers.  Let  me,  however,  tell  you  in  a  few  words 
that  the  hope  of  this  community  never  before  so 
hung  on  the  wisdom,  eloquence,  and  power  of  one 
man  as  it  does  at  this  moment  on  yours.  Your 
speech  on  ' Foot's  resolution'  was  a  turning-point 
in  your  own  life.  Your  speech  this  week  may  be 
the  turning-point  in  the  life  of  this  nation.     God 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         311 

knows  I  mean  no  empty  flattery  when  I  say  that 
I  believe  you,  and  yon  only,  adequate  to  'set  right' 
the  mind  of  the  whole  country,  North  and  South, 
on  the  great  question  which  so  agitates  it.  The 
same  intellect,  the  same  wisdom,  the  same  power 
of  demonstration  and  force  of  thought  and  lan- 
guage which  turned  bach  the  Niagara  torrent  of 
public  sentiment  and  opinion  in  the  former  case 
can  now  show  to  the  South  itself  where  right  and 
reason  lie.  The  '  equilibrium '  plan,  by  which  sla- 
very is  to  repress  and  keep  back  the  institutions  of 
freedom,  is  a  confession  of  the  weakness  of  slavery. 
It  shows  what  must  be  its  own  destiny  in  case  of 
disunion  and  if  left  to  itself.  Why  is  it  that  the 
slave  States  need  new  guards?  Simply  because 
free  institutions  are  outstripping  them.  In  this 
age,  can  it  be  dreamed  of  that  freedom  shall  be 
kept  back  because  slavery  cannot  go  forward?  I 
cannot  now  name  one  mortal  man  in  the  whole 
circle  of  my  acquaintance  who  would  now,  or  who 
ever  heretofore  would,  meddle  with  slavery  in  the 
slave  States.  Why  should  the  slave  States  meddle 
with  my  rights  by  insisting  on  an  extension  of  the 
inequality  of  representation  by  which  one  man  own- 
ing five  slaves  has  as  much  power  as  three  North- 
ern farmers,  lawyers,  mechanics,  or  merchants? 
This  is  the  point  which  galls  me.  I  am  sadly  defi- 
cient in  philanthropy,  and  don 't  know  that  I  should 
object  to  own  slaves  if  I  lived  in  a  slave  State,  but 
it  is  this  political  preponderance  which  gives  to 


312  DANIEL  WEBSTEE 

one  man's  property  so  much  power  over  me  that 
I  had  rather  fight  than  submit  to  any  further  in- 
crease of  it.  How  would  it  do  to  suggest  the  idea 
that  if  they  wish  to  carry  slaves  with  them  into 
new  States  and  Territories,  such  slaves  shall  not 
form  a  basis  of  representation? 

"I  was  struck  this  morning  with  a  remark  of 
young  Mr.  Bives,  that  no  man's  position  in  the 
land  was  equal  to  yours  for  so  displaying  and 
putting  the  whole  case  as  to  satisfy  even  the  rea- 
sonable and  reasoning  portion  of  the  Northern  peo- 
ple as  to  what  is  the  enlarged  and  right  view  of 
the  whole  question— because  your  position  has  al- 
ways been  strictly  national,  while  Mr.  Calhoun's 
has  been  strictly  sectional.  He  added  that  he  looked 
for  the  greatest  argument  now  that  this  country 
had  ever  produced.  I  need  not  repeat  to  you  the 
ardent  expressions  which  he  used  as  to  your  abil- 
ity to  give  it." 

Appeals  of  this  sort  were  quite  unnecessary,  for 
Webster  was  cautiously  and  deliberately  deciding 
what  was  the  wisest  course  to  take.  In  a  letter 
written  as  late  as  the  middle  of  February  he  said : 
"  There  will  be  no  disunion,  no  disruption.  Things 
will  cool  off.  California  will  come  in.  New  Mex- 
ico will  be  postponed.  No  bones  will  be  broken, 
and  in  a  month  all  this  will  be  more  apparent." 
In  another  letter,  written  at  the  same  time,  he 
declares :  ' '  I  do  not  partake  in  any  degree  in  those 
apprehensions  which  you  say  some  of  our  friends 


THE    SEVENTH   OF  MARCH         313 

entertain  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  or  the 
breaking  up  of  the  government.  There  is  no  dan- 
ger, be  assured,  and  so  assure  our  friends.  I  have, 
thus  far,  upon  a  good  deal  of  reflection,  thought  it 
advisable  for  me  to  hold  my  peace.  If  a  moment 
should  come  when  it  will  be  advisable  that  any 
temperate,  national,  and  practical  speech  which  I 
can  make  would  be  useful,  I  shall  do  the  best  I 
can.  Let  the  North  keep  cool."  Another  week's 
reflection  convinced  him  that  a  national  speech 
must  be  made,  and  on  the  22d  of  February  he 
wrote  the  same  friend:  "As  time  goes  on  I  will 
keep  you  advised  by  telegraph,  as  well  as  I  can, 
on  what  day  I  shall  speak.  As  to  what  I  shall  say 
you  can  guess  nearly  as  well  as  I  can.  I  mean  to 
make  a  Union  speech,  and  discharge  a  clear  con- 
science." His  biographer  assures  us  that  "there 
was  but  little  written  preparation  for  it, ' '  and  that 
"all  that  remains  of  such  preparation  is  on  two 
small  scraps  of  paper. ' '  Yet  there  are  among  his 
papers  seventeen  sheets  of  notes,  many  of  which 
are  written  on  both  sides  of  the  paper. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  while  Webster  was  still 
at  work  on  his  speech,  Calhoun,  then  fast  sinking 
into  his  grave,  attended  the  Senate.  He  was  far 
too  feeble  to  bear  the  fatigue  of  speaking,  so  his 
argument  was  read,  in  the  midst  of  profound  si- 
lence, by  Senator  Mason  of  Virginia.  The  second 
of  the  great  triumvirate  having  now  been  heard, 
it  soon  became  noised  abroad  that  Webster  would 


314  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

reply  on  March  7;  and  on  that  day,  accordingly, 
the  floors,  galleries,  and  antechambers  of  the  Sen- 
ate were  so  densely  packed  that  it  was  with  diffi- 
culty that  the  members  reached  their  seats.  Mr. 
Walker  of  Wisconsin  had  the  floor  to  finish  a  speech 
begun  the  day  before ;  but  when  he  had  risen  and 
looked  about  him,  he  said:  "Mr.  President,  this 
vast  audience  has  not  come  together  to  hear  me, 
and  there  is  but  one  man,  in  my  opinion,  who  can 
assemble  such  an  audience.  They  expect  to  hear 
him,  and  I  feel  it  my  duty,  therefore,  as  it  is  my 
pleasure,  to  give  the  floor  to  the  senator  from  Mas- 
sachusetts. ' ' 

Webster  then  rose,  and  after  thanking  the  sen- 
ator from  Wisconsin  and  Mr.  Seward,  the  senator 
from  New  York,  for  their  courtesy  in  yielding  the 
floor,  began  that  speech  which  he  named  ' '  The  Con- 
stitution and  the  Union,"  but  which  his  country- 
men have  ever  since  called  by  the  day  of  the  month 
on  which  it  was  delivered. 

The  scene  now  presented  in  the  Senate  is  thus 
described  by  one  of  the  newspaper  letter- writers  of 
the  day :  ' '  After  a  long  experience,  and  having  en- 
joyed  the  good  fortune  to  be  present  on  many  of 
those  occasions  which  form  epochs  in  public  af- 
fairs, I  have  never  before  witnessed  one  on  which 
there  was  deeper  feeling  enlisted  or  more  universal 
anxiety  to  catch  the  most  distant  echo  of  the  speak- 
er's voice.  Had  the  accommodations  been  tenfold, 
they  would  have  failed  to  satisfy  the  demand  made 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         315 

by  every  age  and  sex  and  condition.  The  spec- 
tacle from  the  thronged  galleries  was  one  of  im- 
posing interest  and  novelty.  No  spot  was  left  un- 
tenanted. All  seemed  to  wait  with  anxiety  when 
the  great  orator  would  appear  upon  the  scene. 

"Mr.  Webster  rose  in  the  full  majesty  of  his 
commanding  person,  grave  and  dignified,  and 
seeming  to  realize  the  greatness  of  the  occasion 
which  enlisted  his  services  and  the  large  expecta- 
tion which  was  excited. 

"It  is  conceded  on  all  hands  that  Mr.  Webster 
has  made  an  important  movement,  one  which  will 
exercise  large  influence  with  the  country  and  affect 
the  settlement  of  the  question  in  issue  seriously. 
This  event  has  occasioned  much  sensation,  and,  if 
the  signs  are  to  be  trusted,  a  favorable  reaction. 
Mr.  Webster  has  assumed  a  great  responsibility, 
and,  whether  he  succeeds  or  fails,  the  courage  with 
which  he  has  come  forward  at  least  entitles  him  to 
the  respect  of  the  country." 

The  speech  did  indeed  make  a  great  sensation, 
and  for  a  while  every  mail  brought  bundles  of  let- 
ters of  praise  and  requests  for  copies  of  it.  Said 
one:  "I  was  highly  gratified  in  reading  your  ad- 
mirable patriotic  and  powerful  speech  in  relation 
to  the  new  Territories.  It  was  a  bold,  independent, 
and  dignified  discharge  of  the  high  duties  devolved 
upon  you.  The  crisis  required  that  the  ablest  men 
should  come  forth,  in  the  majesty  of  their  strength, 
and  rebuke  the  fanatics  and  demagogues  through- 

18 


316  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

out  the  land  who,  by  their  mad  and  treasonable 
efforts,  have  basely  attempted  to  shatter  the  mas- 
sive pillars  of  the  Union. 

1  'The  obstructionists,  the  impracticable,  the  un- 
principled, and  the  ignorant  will  evince  their  wrath 
at  the  signal  defeat  which  they  must  perceive  awaits 
them;  but  you  are  protected  against  their  vindic- 
tive assaults  by  the  holy  buckler  of  patriotism, 
and  all  honest  men  now  and  for  all  coming  time 
will  be  grateful  for  such  a  fearless  and  noble  illus- 
tration of  devotion  to  the  stability,  prosperity,  and 
glory  of  the  Republic. " 

Said  another:  "I  have  read  carefully  and  with 
reflection  your  speech  of  Thursday  last.  It  ap- 
pears to  me  if  Washington  had  arisen  from  his 
tomb  and  addressed  the  Senate  on  that  day,  he 
would  have  uttered  the  words  of  your  speech. 

"It  bears  throughout  the  impress  of  one  lifted 
up  above  the  mists  of  passion,  prejudice,  and  fac- 
tion, surveying  with  a  clear  vision  all  that  is  pass- 
ing below,  and  truthfully  stating  it.  Divested  of 
sectional  feeling,  forgetful  of  the  character  of  a 
special  representative,  the  words  of  truth  and  sol- 
emnness  fell  from  the  lips  of  one  impelled  by  a 
sense  of  the  general  good." 

Addresses  of  approbation  came  to  him  from  citi- 
zens of  Boston,  of  Newburyport,  and  of  Medford, 
from  the  inhabitants  of  towns  on  the  Kennebec 
River  in  Maine,  and  from  innumerable  places  all 
over  the  South,  the  West,  and  the  Middle  States, 
coupled  with  calls  for  printed  copies  of  the  speech. 


THE  SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         317 

"The  clamor  for  speeches  South  and  West  is 
incredible,"  he  wrote  his  son.  "Two  hundred 
thousand  will  not  supply  the  demand."  To  a 
friend  he  wrote:  "Letters  come  in  thickly  and  all 
one  way.  As  soon  as  we  can  get  a  decent  edition 
out,  I  mean  to  send  a  copy  to  the  members  of  the 
Massachusetts  legislature,  and  every  judge,  lawyer, 
justice  of  the  peace,  doctor,  and  clergyman  in  the 
commonwealth.  And  I  would  send  thousands 
more,  under  my  own  frank,  if  I  could  afford  it. 
But  other  people  will  send  many  also." 

"I  have  received  yours,"  he  informs  his  son, 
"and  will  send  one  thousand  speeches  by  express 
to-morrow. ' ' 

By  the  end  of  March  "one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousands  have  gone  off,"  and,  as  the  demand 
showed  no  decline,  ' '  I  suppose  that  by  the  first  day 
of  May  two  hundred  thousand  will  have  been  dis- 
tributed from  Washington." 

No  speech  ever  delivered  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States  produced  such  an  effect  on  the  coun- 
try. Compromisers,  conservative  men,  business 
men  with  Southern  connections,  those  willing  to 
see  the  Union  saved  by  any  means,  rallied  to  his 
support,  and  loaded  him  with  unstinted  praise. 
But  the  antislavery  men,  the  abolitionists,  the  Free- 
soilers,  and  many  Northern  Whigs  attacked  him 
bitterly. 

* '  Webster, ' '  said  Horace  Mann,  "  is  a  fallen  star ! 
Lucifer  descending  from  heaven!"  "By  this 
speech,"  said  Giddings,  "a  blow  was  struck  at 


318  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

freedom  and  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  free 
States  which  no  Southern  arm  could  have  given.' ' 
Theodore  Parker  was  sure  that  "not  a  hundred 
prominent  men  in  all  New  England  acceded  to  the 
speech,"  and  for  the  moment  the  estimate  seemed 
to  be  correct.  "Webster,"  said  Sumner,  "has 
placed  himself  in  the  dark  list  of  apostates."  In 
the  opinion  of  hosts  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  he 
was  indeed  an  apostate.  He  had  changed  his  creed ; 
he  had  broken  from  his  past;  he  had  deserted  the 
cause  of  human  liberty;  he  had  fallen  from  grace. 
When  Whittier  named  him  Ichabod,  and  mourned 
for  him  in  verse  as  one  dead,  he  did  but  express 
the  feeling  of  half  New  England : 

Let  not  the  land  once  proud  of  him 

Insult  him  now, 
Nor  brand  with  deeper  shame  his  dim, 

Dishonored  brow. 

But  let  its  humbled  sons,  instead, 

From  sea  to  lake, 
A  long  lament,  as  for  the  dead, 

In  sadness  make. 

Then,  pay  the  reverence  of  old  days 

To  his  dead  fame; 
Walk  backward,  with  averted  gaze, 

And  hide  the  shame ! 

When  news  of  the  speech  reached  Boston,  the 
House  of  Representatives  were  debating  resolu- 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH  321 

tions  declaring  that  Massachusetts  could  accept  no 
compromise  which  called  on  her  to  abandon  prin- 
ciples she  had  so  firmly  held  and  so  often  repeated, 
and  here  too  Webster  was  condemned  in  vigorous 
language.  He  is,  said  one  member,  ' '  a  recreant  son 
of  Massachusetts  who  misrepresents  her  in  the  Sen- 
ate." "Daniel  Webster,"  said  Henry  Wilson, 
"will  be  a  fortunate  man  if  God,  in  his  sparing 
mercy,  shall  preserve  his  life  long  enough  for  him 
to  repent  of  this  act  and  efface  this  stain  on  his 
name."  At  a  great  meeting  held  in  Faneuil  Hall 
to  condemn  the  conduct  of  Webster,  the  Seventh- 
of-March  speech  was  described  as  i '  alike  unworthy 
of  a  wise  statesman  and  a  good  man. ' '  Said  Theo- 
dore Parker :  "  I  know  of  no  deed  in  American  his- 
tory done  by  a  son  of  New  England  to  which  I  can 
compare  this,  but  the  act  of  Benedict  Arnold." 
Whig  journals  in  New  England,  Whig  journals  all 
over  the  North,  a  large  part  of  the  religious  press, 
even  the  Boston  "Atlas,"  edited  by  an  old  and 
true  friend  of  Webster,  now  turned  against  him. 

The  attack  by  the  press,  the  expressions  of  hor- 
ror that  rose  from  New  England,  Webster  felt 
keenly;  but  the  absolute  isolation  in  which  he  was 
left  by  his  New  England  colleagues  cut  him  to  the 
quick,  and  in  his  letters  he  complains  of  this  bit- 
terly: "Thus  far  I  have  not  one  concurring  vote 
from  Massachusetts.  I  regret  this  much,  but  I  hope 
I  may  be  able  to  stand,  though  I  stand  alone.  At 
any  rate,  I  shall  stand  till  I  fall.  I  will  not  sit 
down. ' ' 


322  DANIEL   WEBSTER 

"I  cannot  well  describe  to  you,  my  dear  sir," 
he  wrote  in  December,  "what  my  feelings  were  for 
five  months,  during  which  no  one  of  my  colleagues 
manifested  the  slightest  concurrence  in  my  senti- 
ments, and  at  the  same  time  I  knew  that  sincere 
men  and  good  Whigs  at  home  disapproved  or 
doubted.  It  was  natural  enough  that  the  speech 
of  March  7th  should  produce  a  spark. ' ' 

That  he  should  now  make  a  public  defense  of 
his  position  was  quite  proper,  and  this  he  did  in  a 
series  of  letters  in  response  to  addresses  from  citi- 
zens of  New  England.  To  eight  hundred  well- 
known  men  of  Boston,  who  thanked  him  for  his 
"broad,  national,  and  patriotic  views,' '  he  said: 
"In  my  judgment,  there  is  no  sufficient  cause  for 
the  continuance  of  the  existing  alienation  between 
the  North  and  the  South.  ...  So  far  as  the 
question  of  slavery  or  no  slavery  applies  to  the 
newly  acquired  Territories,  there  is,  in  my  judg- 
ment, no  real  and  practical  point  of  importance  in 
dispute.  There  is  not,  and  there  cannot  be,  slavery, 
as  I  firmly  believe,  either  in  California,  New  Mex- 
ico, or  Utah.  And  if  this  be  so,  why  continue  the 
controversy  on  a  mere  abstraction  V ' 

In  his  reply  to  the  citizens  of  Newburyport,  he 
reviewed  at  great  length  the  history  of  the  passage 
and  effect  of  the  fugitive-slave  law  of  1793; 
complained  that  the  greatest  clamor  and  outcry 
"against  the  cruelty  and  enormity  of  the  reclama- 
tion of  slaves"  came  from  "quarters  where  no 


THE   SEVENTH   OF  MARCH  323 

such  reclamation  has  ever  been  made,  or,  if  ever 
made,  where  the  instances  are  so  exceedingly  few 
and  far  between  as  to  have  escaped  general  know- 
ledge"; and  asked,  what  is  there,  then,  "to  justify 
the  passionate  appeals,  the  vehement  and  empty 
declamations,  the  wild  and  fanatical  conduct  of 
both  men  and  women,  which  have  so  ]ong  dis- 
turbed and  so  much  disgraced  the  commonwealth 
and  the  country"!  When  answering  the  citizens 
of  the  Kennebec  River  towns  he  made  long  ex- 
tracts from  the  writings  of  travelers  to  prove  that 
his  description  of  New  Mexico  was  correct,  that 
"this  whole  country  is  of  very  little  value,"  and 
that  it  is  "just  about  as  probable  that  African  sla- 
very will  be  introduced  into  New  Mexico,  and  there 
established,  as  it  is  that  it  will  be  established  on 
Mars  Hill,  or  the  side  of  the  White  Mountains." 
The  purpose  of  Webster  was  not  to  put  slavery 
in  nor  shut  it  out  of  the  new  Territories,  nor  make 
every  man  in  the  North  a  slave-catcher,  nor  bid 
for  Southern  support  in  the  coming  election.  He 
sought  a  final  and  lasting  settlement  of  a  question 
which  threatened  the  permanence  of  the  Union 
and  the  Constitution,  and  Clay's  "comprehensive 
scheme  of  adjustment,"  he  believed,  would  effect 
this  settlement.  The  abolition,  the  antislavery,  the 
Free-soil  parties,  were  to  him  but  * '  Northern  move- 
ments ' '  that  would  ' l  come  to  nothing. ' '  The  great 
debate  of  1850  he  regarded  as  idle  talk  that  inter- 
rupted consideration  of  the  tariff.    Never,  in  his 


324  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

opinion,  had  history  made  record  of  a  case  of  such 
mischief  arising  from  angry  debates  and  disputes, 
both  in  the  government  and  the  country,  on  ques- 
tions of  so  very  little  real  importance.  Therein  lay 
his  fatal  mistake.  The  great  statesman  had  fallen 
behind  the  times,  and  it  was  perhaps  well  for  him 
that  he  was  now  removed  from  the  Senate  to  the 
Department  of  State. 

The  Seventh-of -March  speech  had  been  followed 
on  the  eleventh  by  the  famous  "higher  law"  speech 
of  Seward,  by  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of 
thirteen  to  consider  the  resolutions  of  Clay  and 
others,  and  by  a  report  from  the  committee  early 
in  May.  Seven  things  were  proposed :  that  the  ad- 
mission of  a  State  or  States  formed  out  of  Texas 
should  be  postponed ;  that  California  should  be  ad- 
mitted as  a  State;  that  all  the  rest  of  the  country 
acquired  from  Mexico  should  be  made  into  two 
Territories,  to  be  called  New  Mexico  and  Utah, 
and  organized  without  the  Wilmot  Proviso;  that 
the  admission  of  California  and  the  organization 
of  New  Mexico  and  Utah  should  be  provided  for 
in  one  bill ;  that  into  this  bill  should  go  a  provision 
to  pay  Texas  for  ceding  a  part  of  the  great  terri- 
tory she  claimed;  that  there  should  be  a  new  fugi- 
tive-slave law;  and,  finally,  that  the  slave-trade 
should  be  prohibited  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

To  this  scheme  of  adjustment  Taylor  was 
strongly  opposed;  but  while  it  was  still  under  de- 
bate, and  far  from  acceptance,  he  died,  on  the  9th 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         325 

of  July,  1850.  Millard  Fillmore  then  became  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  and  on  the  22d  of  July 
Webster  entered  the  new  cabinet  as  Secretary  of 
State.  He  was  now  an  observer,  but  by  no  means 
a  passive  observer,  of  the  passage  of  the  compro- 
mise measures  by  Congress. 

Change  of  place,  however,  brought  no  change 
of  views,  and  his  hatred  of  the  Free-soilers  and 
abolitionists  grew  stronger  and  stronger.  To  him 
these  men  were  a  band  of  sectionalists,  narrow  of 
mind,  wanting  in  patriotism,  without  a  spark  of 
national  feeling,  and  quite  ready  to  see  the  Union 
go  to  pieces  if  their  own  selfish  ends  were  gained. 
Free-soilers  and  abolitionists  were  all  one  to  him, 
and  as  such  were  attacked  in  language  unworthy 
of  the  great  man.  In  June,  1850,  he  declared  to  a 
friend : 

i  i  I  believe,  my  dear  sir,  that  the  political  men  of 
lead  and  consequence  of  both  the  great  parties  are 
sound  on  great  constitutional  questions.  They  are 
national,  and  justly  appreciate  great  national  ob- 
jects. But  there  are  thousands  in  each  party  who 
are  more  concerned  for  State  than  for  national 
politics,  whose  objects  are  all  small  and  their  views 
all  narrow;  and  then,  again,  this  abolition  feeling 
has  quite  turned  the  heads  of  thousands.  Depend 
upon  it,— indeed,  I  dare  say  you  think  so  as  well  as 
I,— there  are  many  men  at  the  North  who  do  not 
speak  out  what  they  wish,  but  who  really  desire 
to  break  up  the  Union.    And  some  of  these  are  men 


326  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

of  influence  and  standing,  and  are  or  have  been  in 
public  life. 

' '  Things  begin  to  look  better.  There  is  evidently 
a  reaction  in  the  South;  some  impression  has  been 
made  in  New  York.  Most  of  the  New  England 
States  are  now  pretty  right  on  the  Union  questions ; 
and  Massachusetts,  who  has  so  strangely  bolted 
from  her  sphere,  may,  I  hope,  be  brought  back  to 
it.    On  the  whole,  I  believe  the  worst  is  past." 

In  September  he  assures  another  friend  that  he 
"had  much  rather  see  a  respectable  Democrat 
elected  to  Congress  than  a  professed  Whig  tainted 
with  any  degree  of  Free-soil  doctrines  or  aboli- 
tionism. Men  who  act  upon  some  principle,  though 
it  be  a  wrong  principle,  have  usually  some  con- 
sistency of  conduct;  and  they  are  therefore  less 
dangerous  than  those  who  are  looking  for  nothing 
but  increased  power  and  influence,  and  who  act 
simply  on  what  seems  expedient  for  their  purposes 
at  the  moment. " 

In  October  he  writes  to  the  President:  "The 
politics  of  Massachusetts  are  in  a  state  of  utter  con- 
fusion. Many  Whigs  are  afraid  to  act  a  manly 
part,  lest  they  should  lose  the  State  government. 
They  act  a  most  mean  part  in  their  courtship  of 
abolitionism.  .  .  .  Seven  imported  Unitarian 
priests  are  now  candidates  for  public  office,— viz. : 
members  of  Congress,— besides  a  host  of  others 
who  offer  for  the  legislature.  These  are  all  Free- 
soil  or  abolition  men.    The  postmaster  at  Lowell  is 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         327 

represented  to  be  a  brawling  abolitionist,  preaching 
daily  the  duty  of  resistance  to  the  fugitive-slave 
law.  I  shall  inquire  into  this  when  I  return  to 
Boston.' '  In  another  letter  Syracuse  is  called 
"that  laboratory  of  abolitionism,  libel,  and  trea- 
son." In  a  speech  at  Capon  Springs,  Virginia 
(now  West  Virginia),  after  ridiculing  Seward's 
"higher  law,"  he  said:  "It  is  the  code,  however, 
of  the  fanatical  and  factious  abolitionists  of  the 
North. ' '  But '  *  the  secessionists  of  the  South ' '  were 
"learned  and  eloquent,  .  .  .  animated  and 
full  of  spirit,  .  .  .  high-minded  and  chival- 
rous. ...  I  am  not  disposed  to  reproach  these 
gentlemen  or  speak  of  them  with  disrespect. ' '  The 
Constitution,  despite  his  reply  to  Hayne  and  his 
answer  to  Calhoun,  was  now  found  to  contain  at 
least  one  "compact."  "How  absurd  it  is  to  sup- 
pose," said  he  to  the  Capon  Springs  audience, 
"that,  when  different  parties  enter  into  a  compact 
for  certain  purposes,  either  can  disregard  any  one 
provision,  and  expect,  nevertheless,  the  other  to 
observe  the  rest!  ...  I  have  not  hesitated  to 
say,  and  I  repeat,  that  if  the  Northern  States  re- 
fuse, wilfully  and  deliberately,  to  carry  into  effect 
that  part  of  the  Constitution  which  respects  the 
restoration  of  fugitive  slaves,  and  Congress  pro- 
vide no  remedy,  the  South  would  no  longer  be 
bound  to  observe  the  compact." 

In  the  opinion  of  the  Free-soil  and  antislavery 
people,  the  fugitive-slave  law  was  the  most  hate- 


328  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

ful  of  all  the  compromise  measures.  In  the  opin- 
ion of  Webster,  it  was  not  only  wise,  but  absolutely 
necessary.  Indeed,  during  the  early  months  of 
1850  he  framed  a  bill  of  his  own,  had  it  in  his  desk 
ready  for  introduction  when  he  stood  up  to  make 
the  Seventh-of -March  speech,  and  did  introduce  it 
in  June.  In  detail  it  was  quite  unlike  the  bill  re- 
ported by  the  committee.  No  provision  was  made 
for  the  gathering  of  a  posse  to  prevent  a  rescue, 
nor  for  the  use  of  the  army  and  navy,  nor  for  the 
punishment  of  a  marshal  from  whom  a  fugitive 
escaped.  The  negro  claimed  as  a  slave  was  to  be 
heard  in  his  own  defense,  and  if,  after  the  nature 
of  an  oath  had  been  made  plain  to  him,  he  swore 
he  was  not  the  claimant's  property,  he  was  to  be 
tried  before  a  jury,  each  man  of  which  was  to  be 
paid  fifty  cents  for  his  pains.  This  marked  differ- 
ence, however,  did  not  in  the  least  affect  Webster 's 
eagerness  to  uphold  the  bill  reported  by  committee 
when  once  it  became  a  law.  Again  and  again,  in 
his  answers  to  calls  to  speak  at  Union  meetings, 
he  bitterly  denounces  those  who  threaten  to  oppose 
its  execution,  and  to  the  very  last  gave  his  hearty 
approval  to  the  compromise  measures.  ' '  I  trust, ' ' 
he  wrote  in  April,  1852,  to  one  of  his  countless 
admirers,  "there  is  not  a  man  in  the  country  who 
doubts  my  approbation  of  those  measures  which 
are  usually  called  'compromise  measures/  or  my 
fixed  determination  to  uphold  them  steadily  and 
firmly.    Nothing  but  a  deep  sense  of  duty  led  me 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         329 

to  take  the  part  which  I  did  take  in  bringing  about 
their  adoption  by  Congress,  and  that  same  sense 
of  duty  remains  with  unabated  force.  I  am  of 
opinion  that  those  measures,  one  and  all,  were 
necessary  and  expedient,  and  ought  to  be  adhered 
to  by  all  friends  of  the  Constitution  and  all  lovers 
of  their  country.  That  one  among  them  which 
appears  to  have  given  the  greatest  dissatisfaction— 
I  mean  the  fugitive-slave  law— I  hold  to  be  a  law 
entirely  constitutional,  highly  proper,  and  abso- 
lutely essential  to  the  peace  of  the  country.  Such 
a  law  is  demanded  by  the  plain  written  words  of 
the  Constitution,  and  how  any  man  can  wish  to 
abrogate  or  destroy  it,  and  at  the  same  time  say 
that  he  is  a  supporter  of  the  Constitution,  and 
willing  to  adhere  to  those  provisions  in  it  which 
are  clear  and  positive  injunctions  and  restraints, 
passes  my  power  of  comprehension.  My  belief  is 
that  when  the  passions  of  men  subside,  and  reason 
and  true  patriotism  are  allowed  to  have  their  proper 
sway,  the  public  mind,  North  and  South,  will  come 
to  a  proper  state  upon  these  questions.  I  do  not 
believe  that  further  agitation  can  make  any  con- 
siderable progress  at  the  North.  The  great  mass 
of  the  people,  I  am  sure,  are  sound,  and  have  no 
wish  to  interfere  with  such  things  as  are  by  the 
Constitution  placed  under  the  exclusive  control  of 
the  separate  States.  I  have  noticed,  indeed,  not 
without  regret,  certain  proceedings  to  which  you 
have  alluded ;  and  in  regard  to  these  I  have  to  say 


330  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

that  gentlemen  may  not  think  it  necessary  or 
proper  that  they  should  be  called  upon  to  affirm, 
by  resolution,  that  which  is  already  the  existing 
law  of  the  land.  That  any  positive  movement  to 
repeal  or  alter  any  or  all  the  compromise  measures 
would  meet  with  any  general  encouragement  or 
support  I  do  not  at  all  believe.  But,  however,  that 
may  be,  my  own  sentiments  remain,  and  are  likely 
to  remain,  quite  unchanged.  I  am  in  favor  of  up- 
holding the  Constitution  in  the  general  and  all  its 
particulars.  I  am  in  favor  of  respecting  its  au- 
thority and  obeying  its  injunctions,  and  to  the  end 
of  my  life  shall  do  all  in  my  power  to  fulfil  honestly 
and  faithfully  all  its  provisions.  I  look  upon  the 
compromise  measures  as  a  just,  proper,  fair,  and 
final  adjustment  of  the  questions  to  which  they 
relate,  and  no  re-agitation  of  those  questions,  no 
new  opening  of  them,  no  effort  to  create  dissatis- 
faction with  them,  will  ever  receive  from  me  the 
least  countenance  or  support,  concurrence  or  ap- 
proval, at  any  time  or  under  any  circumstances. ' ' 
The  Seventh-of -March  speech,  the  elaborate  and 
repeated  defenses  of  the  compromise  measures,  the 
avowed  sympathy  with  Southern  views,  the  ear- 
nest support  of  the  fugitive-slave  law,  now  led  the 
Eastern  Whigs  to  see  in  Webster  an  available  can- 
didate for  the  Presidency.  The  failing  health  of 
Clay  and  his  many  defeats  put  his  nomination  out 
of  the  question.  But  to  the  voting  masses  the  name 
of  Webster  made  no  appeal.    They  were  steadily 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         331 

turning  toward  another  military  chieftain.  They 
had  nominated  the  hero  of  Tippecanoe,  and  had 
won ;  they  had  nominated  the  hero  of  Buena  Vista, 
and  had  won.  Why  not  nominate  the  hero  of 
Cerro  Gordo,  of  Churubusco,  of  Chapultepec,  and 
win  again?  As  between  "Old  Fuss-and-Feathers" 
and  the  "Defender  of  the  Constitution, ' '  the  peo- 
ple found  it  easy  to  choose.  Nevertheless,  the 
friends  of  Webster  thought  best  to  make  the  at- 
tempt to  effect  a  union  of  Whig  sentiment  in  his 
favor,  and  two  appeals  were  soon  before  the  pub- 
lic. One  was  the  work  of  Mr.  Everett,  the  other 
came  from  the  pen  of  William  M.  Evarts,  and 
both  fell  flat.  Even  his  friends  saw  this,  and  when 
the  Whig  convention  was  about  to  meet  at  Balti- 
more, Mr.  Choate,  who  was  to  present  the  name 
of  Webster,  went  to  Washington  to  warn  him  of 
the  hopelessness  of  the  attempt.  But  he  found  the 
great  man  so  sure  of  victory  that  he  had  not  the 
heart  to  tell  him,  and  went  on  to  Baltimore.  There, 
on  the  first  ballot,  the  vote  stood:  Fillmore,  133; 
Scott,  131 ;  Webster,  29 ;  necessary  to  a  choice,  147. 
That  he  was  beaten  was  plain ;  but  it  was  clear  that 
his  friends  might  say  whether  Scott  or  Fillmore 
should  be  the  candidate.  They  chose  to  fight  to 
the  end,  and  fifty-three  ballots  were  taken  before 
Scott  received  159  and  was  declared  the  nominee. 

In  public  Webster  bore  his  defeat  like  a  man; 
but  his  letters  show  how  keenly  he  felt  the  disap- 
pointment.    To  his  son  he  wrote: 


332  DANIEL  WEBSTER 

"I  confess  I  grow  inclined  to  cross  the  seas.  I 
meet  here  so  many  causes  of  vexation  and  humili- 
ation, growing  out  of  the  events  connected  with  the 
convention,  that  I  am  pretty  much  decided  and  de- 
termined to  leave  the  department  early  in  August, 
and  either  go  abroad  or  go  into  obscurity." 

But  the  sting  of  defeat  was  sharpest  when  calls 
without  number  came  to  him  to  give  aid  to  the 
party  candidate.  Most  of  them  he  would  not  an- 
swer; but  to  one  he  replied: 

Marshfield,  October  12,  1852. 

Gentlemen:  I  received  only  yesterday  your  commu- 
nication of  the  24th  of  September;  and,  among  a  great 
number  of  similar  letters,  it  is  the  only  one  I  answer. 
.  .  .  If  I  were  to  do  what  you  suggest,  it  would  grat- 
ify not  only  you  and  your  friends,  but  that  great  body 
of  implacable  enemies  who  have  prevented  me  from  being 
elected  President  of  the  United  States.  You  all  know 
this,  and  now  how  can  I  be  called  upon  to  perform  any 
act  of  humiliation  for  their  gratification,  or  the  promo- 
tion of  their  purposes? 

But,  gentlemen,  I  do  not  act  from  personal  feeling. 
It  is  with  me  a  matter  of  principle  and  character,  and  I 
have  now  to  state  to  you  that  no  earthly  consideration 
could  induce  me  to  say  anything  or  do  anything  from 
which  it  might  be  inferred,  directly  or  indirectly,  that  I 
concur  in  the  Baltimore  nomination,  or  that  I  should  give 
it,  in  any  way,  the  sanction  of  my  approbation.  If  I  were 
to  do  such  act,  I  should  feel  my  cheeks  already  scorched 
with  shame  by  the  reproaches  of  posterity. 

It  was  long  the  popular  belief  that  disappointed 
ambition,  chagrin  over  the  loss  of  the  Presidential 


THE   SEVENTH  OF  MARCH         333 

nomination,  was  the  cause  of  Webster's  death;  but 
that  such  was  the  case  may  well  be  doubted.  He 
was  now  an  old  man,  far  on  in  his  seventy-first 
year.  His  health  had  long  been  failing ;  his  strong 
efforts  in  behalf  of  the  compromise  measures  had 
impaired  it  still  further ;  and  his  end  was  inevitably 
near.  That  his  great  disappointment  hastened  the 
end  is  quite  likely,  for  from  the  June  day  when 
the  Baltimore  convention  adjourned  he  broke  rap- 
idly, and  in  the  early  morning  of  October  24,  1852, 
he  died  at  Marshfield.  Clay  had  preceded  him  by 
four  months. 


10 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Aberdeen,  Lord,  succeeds  Palmerston, 

272 
Abolition,  247  ;  right  of  petition  for,  250 
Abolitionists,  241,  242 ;  petitions  of,  245, 

246 
Adams,  John,  oration  on,  142-145 
Adams,  John  Q.,  Webster  on  election  of, 
123-124,  125;    the    "coalition,"     126- 
129 ;  elected  President,  130 ;  the  White 
House,  137 
'Address  to  the  People  of  South  Caro- 
lina," 194-195 
Allegheny  County,  sends  Webster  dele- 
gates, 235 
Alton,  visited  by  Webster,  239 
Andover,  Mass.,  Webster  speaks  at,  284 
Annexation  of  Louisiana,  243;  of  Flor- 
ida, 244 ;  of  Texas,  244 
"Anthology,  The  Monthly,"  47 
Anti-Masons,  question  Webster,  235 
Antislavery,  241,  242,  243;    growth  of, 
249;    Webster's   attitude  toward,   in 
1839,  250 
Antislavery  Society,  the  American.  241 
"Appeal  to  the  Old  Whigs,"— pamph- 
let written  by  Webster,  44 
Ashburton,  Lord,  on  the   Caroline  af- 
fair, 272 ;  given  no  authority  on  sub- 
ject of  impressment,  273 

Bangor,  Webster  speaks  at,  231 

Bank  of  the  United  States,  Jackson's 
veto  of  the  bill  to  renew  its  charter, 
226;  removal  of  deposits,  227;  peti- 
tions for  and  against  the  removal  of 
deposits,  228 ;  power  to  create  a,  235 ; 
' '  Fiscal ' '  charter  vetoed  by  Tyler,  256, 
259,  260 

Bankrupt  bill,  261 

"Bargain  and  Corruption"  charge 
against  Clay,  126-130 

Benton,  T.  H.,  on  Foot's  Resolution, 
158-160 ;  cartoon  of,  231 ;  on  Calhoun, 
241 

Berrien,  John  M.,  attacks  Webster,  281 

Berwyn,  supports  Webster,  235 

Birney,  James  G.,  242 

"Bloody  Bill,"  203 

Boscawen,  Webster  practises  law  at, 
43-44 

Boston,  Webster  speaks  at,  in  1835,  232 ; 
Whig  convention  at,  235 ;  Garrison 
mobbed  in,  242 ;  friends  in,  tender 
Webster  a  dinner,  276 ;  Webster 
speaks  in,  270 

Botts,  Mr.,  "extraordinary"  letter  of, 
259,  260 


Brentwood,  Webster  at  the  convention, 
63,  64 ;  writes  the  address,  65-66 

Buckminster,  Joseph  S.,  one  of  Web- 
ster's teachers,  15-16 

Buffalo,  visited  by  Webster,  240 

Buffalo  Creek,  264 

Bunker  Hill  oration,  132-136;  speech  at 
Whig  meeting,  251 

Calhoun,  John  C,  Webster  on,  122;  de- 
feats tariff  bill  (1827),  147;  writes 
"South  Carolina  Exjjosition, "  156 ;  ad- 
dress to  the  people  of  South  Carolina, 
194-195;  letter  to  Gov.  Hamilton,  195; 
Webster  intends  to  answer  it,  195- 
196 ;  elected  to  the  Senate,  203 ;  reso- 
lutions on  the  Constitution,  204 ;  de- 
bate with  Webster,  210;  on  the  basis 
of  Southern  Union,  241;  Northern 
views  of  his  objects,  242;  presents  a 
bill  against  antislavery  literature, 
243 ;  resolutions  of,  on  slavery  in  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  246;  Webster's 
charges  against,  248-249;  resolution 
of,  250;  extending  the  Constitution, 
303-305 

California,  plan  to  buy,  282 

Canada,  rebellion  in,  264 ;  intended  in- 
vasion of,  269 

Caroline  affair,  263-270,  272,  273 

Cartoons,  230 

Cass,  Lewis,  letter  to  Webster,  267 

Caucus  of  1824,  opposed  by  Webster,  114 

Charleston,  S.  C,  242 

Charlestown,  Mass.,  Webster  accused  of 
burning  the  convent  at,  252 

Chester  County,  sends  Webster  dele- 
gates, 235 

Chicago,  visited  by  Webster,  240 

Children  of  Webster,  48 

Choate,  Rufus,  wishes  to  resign,  284; 
expiration  of  term,  285 ;  succeeded  by 
Webster,  288;  Webster's  influence 
over,  288;  nominates  Webster  at  Bal- 
timore, 289 ;  at  Whig  convention,  331 

Cincinnati,  visited  by  Webster,  239; 
mobs  in,  242 

Clay,  Henry,  on  the  tariff,  118;  an- 
swered by'Webster,  118;  attack  on,  by 
Kremer,  126,  129-130;  resolution  to 
censure  Jackson,  228 ;  cartoon  of,  230 ; 
supports  Calhoun,  246,  247 ;  Webster's 
charge  against,  247,  248 ;  resolution  of, 
250 ;  offered  the  Department  of  State, 
255 ;  presented  by  a  Massachusetts 
convention  as  a  presidential  candi- 
date,  276;    nominated  by  the  Whig 


337 


338 


INDEX 


convention  at  Baltimore,  287;  in- 
dorsed by  Webster,  287 ;  writes  Ala- 
bama letter,  288;  return  to  the  Sen- 
ate, 307;  seeks  to  effect  a  compro- 
mise, 307-308;  the  compromise,  324; 
death,  333 

Cleveland,  Ohio,  headquarters  of  "  Hun- 
ters' Lodges,"  269 

"  Coalition/'  the  "unholy,"  126,  129-130 

Columbia  River,  as  the  Oregon  boun- 
dary, 282 

Columbus,  reception  to  Webster,  222 

Comet  ca.se,  271 

Compact,  the  Constitution  not  a,  207- 
216 

Compromise  of  1833,  216-217 

Compromise  of  1850,  307;  appeals  to 
Webster,  308-312;  Webster's  7th-of- 
March  speech,  313-316;  effect  of  the 
speech,  316-321 ;  defense  of,  321-323  j 
details  of,  324 

Concord,  oration  at,  56 

Congress, — House  of  Representatives, 
Webster  becomes  a  member,  67-68; 
work  in,  71-89;  loses  his  seat,  90; 
reelected  from  Massachusetts,  99; 
speech  in  behalf  of  Greeks,  100-108 ; 
on  the  tariff,  118 ;  the  election  of  1825, 
122-132 ;  the  Panama  mission,  138-140 ; 
diminution  of  the  powers  of,  232 ;  no 
power  over  slavery  in  the  States, 
245,  254;  petitions  to,  245,  246;  juris- 
diction in  District  of  Columbia,  246, 
247,  250;  special  session  of,  256; 
passes  Whig  reform  measures,  256 ; 
members  consult  Webster,  256 

"Considerations  on  the  Embargo," — 
pamphlet  by  Webster,  62 

Constitution,  the,  — who  made  it,  178- 
180,  191-194,  203-216;  not  a  compact 
between  the  States,  207-216 ;  Webster 
speaks  upon,  231 ;  Webster  "  the  de- 
fender of,"  232;  Webster  discusses 
dangerous  changes  in,  232-235;  general 
government  limited  by,  237,  238;  ex- 
hortation to  support,  239 ;  on  annexa- 
tion, 243;  on  slavery,  244;  on  the 
power  of  Congress  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  247 ;  Clay  and  Calhoun  at- 
tempt to  make  a  new  one,  247,  248; 
' '  The  Constitution  and  the  Union  ' ' 
speech,  314 

Convention,  at  Brentwood,  63-66; 
speech  before,  71-72 ;  Massachusetts 
Constitutional,  96-97;  Whig,  of  1848, 
292-297;  of  1852,  331 

Cooper,  Dr.  Thomas,  on  the  value  of  the 
Union,  164 

Court,  Massachusetts  General,  Webster 
a  member,  97-98 

Court,  Supreme,  Webster's  practice  in, 
236 

Creole  case,  271 

Crittenden,  Attorney-General,  266 

Dartmouth  College,  Webster's  life  at, 
17  ;  Choate,  as  student  at,  affected  by 
Webster's  speech  on,  288 

Debate,  the  imaginary  debate  in  the 
Adams  and  Jefferson  oration,  143- 
144;  Webster-Hayne,  158-181 


Democrats,  pleased  with  Webster's  res- 
ignation, 282;  nominate  Polk  and 
demand  annexation  of  Texas,  287, 
288 ;  elect  Polk,  288 ;  pass  the  joint 
resolution  admitting  Texas,  288 

District  of  Columbia,  abolition  of  slav- 
ery in,  245-246,  250 ;  banking  system 
of,  256 

"Doctrine,  The  South  Carolina,"  177- 
178 

Duane,  Wm.  J.,  refuses  to  remove  de- 
posits, 227 

Durfee,  Amos,  264 

East,  the,  Webster's  defense  of,  165- 

166 
Eastman,  Abigail,  mother  of  Webster,  4 
Election  of  1824,  Webster  on,   113-115, 

122-124,  125-132 
Embargo,  the,  58-62 
Encomium  case,  271 
Enterprise  case,  271 
Essex,  Mass.,  the  home  of  Rufus  Choate, 

288 
Everett,  Edward,  100-102;  minister  to 

England,  272 ;  plan  to  send  on  Chinese 

mission,  282 
Exeter  Academy,  Webster  enters,  15-16 
Expansion,   Webster  opposed  to,   244, 

245 
"Exposition,"  the  South  Carolina,  of 

1828,  156 
Extradition,  provision  for,  secured  by 

Webster,  274,  275;    like  provision  in 

Jay's  treaty,  275 

Faneuil  Hall,  reception  to  Webster, 
151-155;  speech  at,  190-191,  202-203, 
276 

Farm,  Webster  buys,  in  the  West,  236 

Fillmore,  Millard,  becomes  President 
and  appoints  Webster  Secretary  of 
State,  325 

Finances,  income  reduced  by  duties  in 
Senate,  236;  state  of,  in  1843,  284 

"Fiscal  Corporation"  bill,  261 

Fletcher,  Grace,  first  wife  of  Webster, 
47;  children  of,  48;  death,  146 

Florida,  244 

Foot's  resolution,  Webster-Hayne  de- 
bate on,  158-181 

"Force  Act,"  203 

Forsyth,  John,  denounces  Webster,  229 

Fort  Schlosser,  264 

Fox,  British  minister,  265,  267 

France,  243;  treats  with  England  con- 
cerning slave-trade,  271 

Free-soilism,  245 

Friend  of  domestic  manufacturers,  148 

Fryeburg,  Webster  teaches  in  academy 
at,  25-26 ;  oration  at,  55 

Garrison,  Wm.  L.,  241,  242 

Georgia,  offers  $5000  for  Garrison,  241 

Giddings,  Joshua,  on  the  7th-of -March 
speech,  317-318 

Gore,  Christopher,  Webster  enters  office 
of,  39,  41-42 

Great  Britain,  boundary  dispute,  Mc- 
Leod  and  Caroline  affair,  263-270 ;  at- 
tempts to  stop  slave-trade,  270 


INDEX 


339 


Greeks,  Webster's  speech  on  their 
cause,  100-108 

Hallowell,  supports  Webster,  235 

Hamilton,  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
Calhoun's  letter  to,  195;  Webster  pro- 
poses to  answer  it,  195-196 

Hanover,  N.  H.,  Webster's  Fourth-of- 
July  oration  at,  18,  21-22 

"  Hard  to  Coax  "  speech,  276,  279,  280 

Harrisburg,  Tariff  Convention,  148 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  nominated 
by  the  Whigs,  235;  visited  by  Web- 
ster, 239;  nominated  by  Whigs  in 
1839,  250;  campaign  for,  251-254; 
tenders  the  Department  of  State  to 
Clay  and  Webster,  255 ;  inaugural  ad- 
dress, 255,  256  ;  death  of,  256 

Hayne,  R.  Y.,  on  the  tariff,  149,  151; 
debate  with  Webster,  158-181 

Hopkinson,  Joseph,  on  Webster's 
speech  on  the  Greeks,  106 

House  of  Representatives  passes  ' '  gag ' ' 
resolutions,  243,  246 

"Hunters'  Lodges,"  268,  269 

"Ichabod,"— Whittier's  poem,  318 

Impressment,  273,  274 

"Intelligencer,  The,"  280,  281,  an- 
nounces Webster's  resignation,  282 

Internal  Improvements,  Webster  com- 
ments on  the  President's  veto  of,  232, 
235 

Jackson,  Andrew,  to  the  nullifiers, 
201-202;  Webster  on,  202-203;  asks 
for  a  "Force  Act,"  203;  on  Web- 
ster's reply  to  Calhoun,  221  ;  re- 
election in  1832,  226 ;  opposition  to 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  226 ; 
causes  the  removal  of  the  deposits, 
227;  censured  by  the  Senate,  227; 
condemned  for  removing  deposits  and 
refusing  the  "paper  read  in  cabi- 
net," 227,  228;  protests  the  vote  of 
censure,  229 ;  cartoon  of,  230 ;  suc- 
ceeded ^by  Van  Buren,  236 ;  message 
on  anti  slavery  mail,  242 
Jay,  John,  treaty  with  England,  275 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  Webster's  oration 
on  the  life  of,  142-145 

Kent,  Chancellor,  Webster's  letter  to,  on 
Calhoun's  address,  195-196,  237 

Kremer,  George,  charges  Clav  and 
Adams  with  corruption,  126,  129-130 

Lands,  the  public,— Foot's  resolution, 
158;  Benton  on,  158-160;  Hayne  on, 
160-161 ;  Webster  on,  161-163 

Letters,  to  the  Whig  convention,  235, 
236 ;  announcing  wish  to  resign,  236, 
237;  on  growth  of  antislavery,  249, 
250  ;  on  the  general  slavery  question, 
250;  to  Mrs.  Webster,  while  cam- 
paigning, 252;  to  members  of  Con- 
gress, on  the  policy  of  the  Whigs, 
259-261 ;  asking  whether  he  ought  to 
resign,  261 ;  explaining  reasons  for 
remaining,  262;  attacking  cabinet 
members  who  had  resigned,  262;    to 


Seward,  concerning  McLeod,  266;  to 
Fox,  concerning  McLeod,  267;  to 
Ashburton,  concerning  the  Caroline, 
affair,  273 ;  to  Ashburton,  on  impress- 
ment, 273;  to  his  son,  on  "Hard  to 
Coax"  speech,  280,  281;  to  his  son, 
concerning  Taylor,  292,  297,  298,  299 ; 
to  his  son,  concerning  demand  for 
copies  of  his  7th-of -March  speech, 
317;  to  a  friend  on  his  treatment  by 
the  Whigs,  322;  to  citizens  of  New- 
buryport,  323 ;  to  friends,  concerning 
the  Compromise,  325,  326 ;  to  the 
President,  326,  327;  to  his  son,  332; 
to  a  committee,  332 

Lewiston,  264 

Lexington,  Ky.,  Webster  visits,  239 

"Liberator,"  241,  242 

"Liberty  and  union,  now  and  forever, 
one  and  inseparable,"  181 

Locofocos,  pleased  with  Webster's  res- 
ignation, 282 

Louisiana,  promises  to  sxtpport  Webster 
for  Presidency,  235,  243,  244 

Louisville,  Webster  visits,  239 

Madison,  James,  Webster  at  President's 
levee,  69-70 ;  carries  resolutions  of  in- 
quiry to,  79-80 

Madison,  Wis.,  visited  by  Webster,  239 

Maine,  boundary  of,  263,  272;  dispute 
determined,  275 

Mann,  Horace,  on  the  7th-of-March 
speech,  317 

Manufactures,  Webster  on  protecting, 
86-87 ;  tariff  of  1824,  116-121 ;  of  1828, 
147-151;  of  1832,  194;  of  1833,  216-217 

Marriage  to  Grace  Fletcher,  47-48 

Marshall,  John,  on  Webster,  81 

Marshfield,  Webster's  enjoyment  of, 
284 

Maryland,  247 

Mason,  Jeremiah,  influence  over  Web- 
ster, 51-52 ;  advice  on  seeking  English 
mission,  141 

Massachusetts,  constitutional  conven- 
tion, 96-97 ;  Webster  a  senator  from, 
140;  legislature  of,  nominates  Web- 
ster for  President,  235;  members  of 
legislature  meet  in  Boston,  235;  cast 
fourteen  electoral  votes  for  Webster, 
236 ;  urged  by  Webster  to  elect  his  suc- 
cessor, 237 ;  Whigs  of,  nominate  Web- 
ster. 250;  Webster's  defiance  to  the 
Whigs  of,  279,  280 ;  Whigs  of,  return 
Webster  to  Senate,  288 

Maysville,  Webster  visits,  239 

McLeod,  Alexander,  263  ;  arrest  of,  264 ; 
release  demanded  by  Great  Britain, 
265 ;  New  York  executive  asked  to  re- 
lease, 266;  attempt  to  prevent  the 
trial,  267,  268 ;  trial  and  acquittal,  270 

McNab,  Sir  Allan,  seizes  the  Caroline, 
264 

Melbourne,  Lord,  272 

Mexico,  282 

Michigan  City,  visited  by  Webster,  240 

Nassau,  Creole  brought  into,  271 
Navy  Island,  seized  by  Canadian  refu- 
gees, 264 


340 


INDEX 


Netherlands,  treats  with  Great  Britain 

on  slave-trade,  271 
New  England,  Webster  on  politics  of, 

99 ;  tariff  views  of,  150-151 
New  Hampshire,  252;  friends  of  Web- 
ster ask  to  present  his  name  for  Presi- 
dent, 284 
New  York,  promises  to  support  Webster 
for  Presidency,  235 ;  aroused  by  the 
Caroline  affair,  263;  government  of, 
inactive  against  "Hunters'  Lodges," 
269 
New  York  City,  dinner  to  Webster  and 
speech,  191-194;  meeting  of  Webster's 
friends  in,  237;  consents  to  speak  in, 
237;  antislavery  riots  in,  242;  Web- 
ster speaks  at.  in  the  Harrison  cam- 
paign, 252;  Whig  meeting  in,  defies 
Webster,  281 
Niagara,  Caroline  sent  over  the  falls,  264 
Niblo's  Garden,  speech  at,  237,  243 
North  Bend,  visited  by  Webster,  239 
Notes,  for  the  speech  on  the  Greeks,  109 
Nullification,  the  South  Carolina  expo- 
sition of  128,  156;  Foot's  resolution, 
158 ;  debate  with  Hayne,  158-181 ;  Ben- 
ton attacks  the  East,  158-160;  Hayne 
on  the  East,  160-161;  Webster  an- 
swers Hayne,  161-166 ;  Hayne  answers 
Webster,*  167-173 ;  Webster  answers 
Hayne,  173-181 ;  reception  of  the  re- 
ply to  Hayne  by  the  public,  182-189 ; 
tendered  a  public  dinner,  190;  pre- 
sented with  a  silver  pitcher,  190; 
speech  at  the  New  York  dinner,  191- 
194;  the  tariff  of  1832,  194;  Calhoun's 
address  to  the  people  of  South  Caro- 
lina, 194-195;  Webster  proposes  to 
answer  it,  195-196 ;  speech  at  Worces- 
ter, 197-199 ;  South  Carolina  nullifies 
the  tariff,  200;  Jackson's  proclama- 
tion, 201 ;  Webster  on  the  procla- 
mation, 202-203;  Jackson  asks  for  a 
"Force  Act,"  203;  Calhoun's  resolu- 
tions, 204;  debate  on  the  "Bloody 
Bill,"  205-206;  Webster-Calhoun  de- 
bate, 206-216 ;  the  compromise  of  1833, 
216-217 

Ohio,  promises  to  support  Webster  for 
Presidency,  235 

Orations,  at  Hanover  (1800),  18,  21-22 ; 
at  Fryeburg  (1802),  55;  at  Salisbury 
(1805),  55;  at  Concord  (1806),  55;  at 
Portsmouth,  62-63 ;  at  Plymouth,  97  ; 
Bunker  Hill,  132-137 ;  Adams  and  Jef- 
ferson, 142-145 

Oregon,  boundary  of,  281,  282 

"  Our  country,  our  whole  country,  and 
nothing  but  our  country,"  136,  152 

Palmerston,  Lord,  threatens  war  if  Mc- 
Leod  is  not  released,  265 ;  claims  right 
of  search,  271;  succeeded  by  Lord 
Aberdeen,  272 

Pamphlets,  written  by  Webster,  44,  62 

Panama  mission,  138-140 

Parker,  Theodore,  on  7th-of-March 
speech,  318,  321 

Parties  in  1848,  291 


"Patriotic  Societies,"  268,  269 

Patton,  John  M.,  resolution  of,  249 

Peck,  Representative,  letter  to,  250 

Pennsylvania,  State  Convention  of,  con- 
tains Webster  delegates,  235 

Penobscot  County,  Maine,  indorses 
Webster's  nomination  for  Presidency, 
235 

"Pet  banks,"  227 

Petition,  the  right  of,  245,  246;  Web- 
ster's opinion,  250 

Philadelphia,  antislavery  riots  in,  242 

Pitcher,  silver,  given  to  Webster,  190 

Pittsburg,  reception  to  Webster  and  a 
speech  at,  222-224 

Plumer,  William,  Webster's  encounter 
with,  48-49 

Plymouth,— oration  on  "First  settle- 
ment of  New  England, ' '  97 

Polk,  James  K.,  nominated  by  the 
Democrats,  287 ;  defeats  Clay,  288 

Portland,  supports  Webster's  nomina- 
tion for  Presidency,  235 

Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  Web- 
ster's life  at,  47-53  ;  oration  at,  62-63; 
Webster  removes  from,  90 

Portugal,  treaty  with  England  concern- 
ing the  slave-trade,  271 

Presidencv,  Webster  a  candidate  for 
(1848),  291-292;  scenes  at  the  conven- . 
tion,  292-297 ;  Webster  a  candidate  for 
(1852),  330-331 

Protection,  Webster  opposed  to,  86-87, 
116,  117-121,  147-151 

Proviso,  the  Wilmot,  289;  Webster  on, 
290 

Public  lands,  bill  to  distribute  proceeds 
of,  256 

Richmond,  Va.,  252,  253,  254 

"Right  of  search,"  263;  renewal  of 
claim,  by  Great  Britain,  270,  271 

Rush,  Richard,  on  the  Adams  and  Jeffer- 
son oration,  144 

Salisbury,  N.  H.,  founded,  3-4;  Webster 
born  in,  6 

Saratoga,  252,  253 

Scott,  Winfield,  nominated  for  the 
Presidency,  331;  Webster  refuses  to 
support,  332 

Secretary  of  State,  Webster  accepts  the 
office  of,  255;  revises  Harrison's  in- 
augural address,  255,  256;  consulted 
by  members  of  Congress,  256;  re- 
mains in  cabinet,  261,  262  ;  called  upon 
to  settle  the  boundary  dispute  and 
McLeod  affair,  263-270;  investigates 
"Hunters'  Lodges,"  268,  269;  settles 
the  Caroline  affair,  272,  273 ;  addresses 
a  letter  to  Ashburton  on  impressment, 
273 ;  secures  extradition  treaty,  274, 
275;  settles  the  slave-trade  question 
and  the  Maine  boundary.  275;  urged 
to  resign,  276 ;  reply,  276,  279,  280 ;  re- 
signs office,  282 ;  reasons  for  resigna- 
tion, 283  ;  Fillmore  appoints  him,  325 

Senate  of  the  United  States,  Webster 
elected  a  senator  from  Massach\isetts, 
146;   defends  New  England,  150-151; 


INDEX 


341 


votes  for  tariff  of  1828, 151 ;  Webster- 
Hayne  debate,  158-181;  Webster-Cal- 
houn debate,  203-216;  war  against 
Jackson,  227 ;  calls  for  the  paper  read 
in  cabinet,  227;  censures  Jackson, 
227;  Jackson  sends  protest  to,  229; 
Webster  speaks  on  the  powers  and 
duties  of,  230 ;  Webster  thinks  of  re- 
tiring from,  236  ;  service  in,  not  lucra- 
tive, 236 ;  Massachusetts  legislature 
urges  Webster  to  remain  in,  237 ;  Web- 
ster opposes  Calhoun's  resolutions  on 
slavery,  246,  247 ;  Webster  calls  atten- 
tion to  his  speech  in,  254;  Webster 
considers  returning  to,  284 ;  surprised 
by  Texas  treaty,  287;  Webster's  re- 
turn to,  288;  Wilmot  proviso,  289; 
debate  on  extending  the  constitution, 
303-305 ;  membership  in  1850,  306-307 ; 
the  compromise  of  1850,  307;  Web- 
ster's speech,  308-312 

"  Seventh-of-March  "  speech,  308-321; 
Webster's  defense,  321-323 

Seward,  Wm.  H.,  asked  to  nolle  prosequi 
the  McLeod  case,  266 ;  denies,  267 ; 
prevents  the  discharge  of  McLeod, 
268 

Slavery,  the  question  to  unite  the 
South,  241;  attitude  of  the  North 
towat'd,  242 ;  a  national  question,  243  ; 
Webster's  opinion  of,  244,  245;  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  246,  247 ;  Web- 
ster's attitude  toward,  247  ;  Webster 
on  the  general  question,  250 ;  Webster 
speaks  on,  in  the  South,  253,  254 

Slave-trade,  263;  British  attempt  to 
stop,  270,  271 ;  inter-State,  271 ;  agree- 
ment with  England  concerning,  275 

South  Carolina,  resents  the  tariff,  156 ; 
exposition  of  1828,  156;  Senator 
Hayne's  debate  with  Webster,  158- 
181 ;  anti-tariff  excitement,  194 ;  Cal- 
houn's address  to  the  people  of,  194- 
195;  letter  to  Gov.  Hamilton,  195; 
nullifies  the  tariff,  200;  Jackson's 
proclamation  to  the  milliners,  201 

Spain,  243 ;  British  treaty  with,  271 

Speeches,  on  the  cause  of  the  Creeks, 
100-108;  notes  for,  109-110;  on  Pan- 
ama mission,  138-140;  on  New  Eng- 
land and  the  tariff,  150-151 ;  in  Fan- 
euil  Hall,  151-155 ;  replies  to  Hayne, 
161-166,  173-181;  demand  for  copies, 
188-189  ;  in  Faneuil  Hall,  190-191 ;  at 
New  York,  191-194;  at  Worcester, 
197-199 ;  in  Faneuil  Hall,  202-203  ;  re- 
ply to  Calhoun,  210-216  ;  at  Pittsburg, 
222-224;  attacking  Jackson's  financial 
policy,  228;  on  "a  redeemable  paper 
currency,"  228;  on  "'The  Natural 
Hatred  of  the  Poor  to  the  Rich,"  228; 
on  examination  of  the  powers  and 
duties  of  the  Executive  and  Senate, 
230;  on  "the  two  grand  purposes  of 
the  Constitution,"  231,  232;  on  dan- 
gerous changes  going  on  in  the  Con- 
stitution, 232.  235 ;  at  Niblo's  Garden, 
237,  243,  244,  245  ;  during  the  Western 
trip,  239,  240 ;  on  slavery  in  District 
of  Columbia,  247;  on  Calhoun's  polit- 


ical conduct,  248,  249 ;  in  the  Harrison 
campaign,  at  Saratoga,  Bunker  Hill, 
New  York,  and  Richmond,  252-254;  the 
"Hard  to  Coax,"  276,  279,  280;  at  An- 
dover,  284;  at  Vallev  Forge,  288;  at 
Marshfield,  300;  7th-of  March,  314- 
323 ;  Capon  Springs,  327 
Springfield,  Ohio,  Webster  buys  a  farm 

near,  236 
States,  admission  of,  244;  duties  in  re- 
lation to  slavery,  246,  247;  Congress 
without  power  to  free  slaves  in,  250, 
254 
"States'  Rights,"  Webster  on,  248,  249 
Stevenson.  Andrew,  resigns  British  mis- 
sion, 272 
St.  Louis,  visited  by  Webster,  239 
Subtreasury  Act,  repeal  of,  256 
Sumner,  Charles,  on  the  7th-of-March 

speech,  318 
Sweden,  treaty  with  England  concern- 
ing slave-trade,  271 

Taney,  Roger  B.,  appointed  Secretary 
of  the  Treasurv,  227 

Tariff,  of  1816,  115;  agitation,  116; 
Webster  opposed,  116;  answers  Clay 
(1824),  118,  119-121;  of  1828,  147-151; 
of  1832,  194;  compromise,  210-216; 
Calhoun  on,  241 

Taylor,  Zachary,  nominated  for  the 
Presidencv,  292-297;anger  of  Webster, 
297-300 ;  Webster's  speech  at  Marsh- 
field,  300-301 ;  death  of,  324 

"Telegraph,  The,"  a  nullification  j  our  - 
nal,  241 

Territories,  the,  slavery  in,  246 ;  status 
of,  under  the  Constitution,  303-305 

Texas,  annexation  of,  243,  244,  245,  249 ; 
independence  of,  282;  Tyler's  desire 
to  annex,  283;  Clay  and  Van  Buren 
avoid  the  question,  287;  Tyler  nego- 
tiates secret  treaty  with,  287;  Polk 
demands  annexation,  288;  Webster 
opposes,  288 ;  Clay  tries  to  explain 
his  attitude  concerning,  288;  enters 
the  Union,  288 

Thompson,  Thomas  W.,  Webster  studies 
law  with,  24-25 

Tippecanoe,  Hero  of,  251 ;  clubs,  252 

Toledo,  visited  by  Webster,  240 

Tyler,  John,  succeeds  Harrison,  256 ; 
agrees  to  reform  measures,  but  vetoes 
charter  for  a  "  Fiscal  Bank  of  the 
United  States,"  256;  Webster's  de- 
fense of,  259-261;  vetoes  "Fiscal  Cor- 
poration Bill,"  261;  read  out  of  Whig 
party,  261;  cabinet  resigns  except 
Webster,  261 :  championed  by  Webster, 
262;  Massachusetts  State  convention 
reads  him  out  of  party,  276  ;  Webster 
attacked  by  the  press  for  supporting, 
281 ;  plan  as  to  Oregon  boundary,  282; 
determination  to  annex  Texas,  283 

Union,  the,  Webster  on,  155, 157 ;  Hayne 
debate,  158-181 ;  national  eulogy  upon, 
231 ;  nature  and  value  of,  237,  238 

Utica,  242;  trial  of  McLeod  in,  270 


342 


INDEX 


Valley  Forge,  "Webster  speaks  at,  288 

Van  Buren,  succeeds  Jackson,  236 ; 
summons  Congress  to  a  special  ses- 
sion, 239;  tries  to  avoid  Texas  ques- 
tion, 287 ;  rejected  by  the  Democratic 
convention,  287 

Vermont,  promises  Webster  its  support 
for  Presidency,  235 

Virginia,  247,  253,  254 

War,  the  Mexican,  Webster  opposed  to, 
289-290 

War  of  1812-15,  Webster  on  opposition 
to,  71-72 

Washington,  life  at,  in  1813,  69-70 

Webster,  Daniel,  character  of  his  father, 
3-6;  birth,  6;  school-days,  6-9, 10, 12; 
goes  to  Exeter  Academy,  15 ;  anecdote 
of,  15-16;  taught  by  Rev.  S.  Wood, 
16-17 ;  enters  Dartmouth  College,  17  ; 
life  at  Dartmouth,  17-18;  Fourth-of- 
July  orator  at  Hanover,  18,  21-22; 
graduates  from  Dartmouth,  24 ;  stud- 
ies law,  24-25 ;  teacher  in  Fryeburg 
Academy,  25-26 ;  why  he  studied  law, 
28-29 ;  early  poverty,  29-30 ;  choice  of 
a  place  for  the  practice  of  law,  31-35  ; 
goes  to  Boston,  35-38;  enters  Mr. 
Gore's  office,  38,  41-42 ;  offered  clerk- 
ship of  court,  41-42;  advice  of  Mr. 
Gore,  41,  42 ;  of  his  father,  42-13 ;  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar,  43 ;  opens  an  office 
at  Boscawen,  43-44;  "Appeal  to  the 
Old  Whigs, "  44 ;  writes  for  the  ' '  An- 
thology, 47;  removes  to  Portsmouth, 
47;  marriage,  48;  children,  48;  en- 
counter with  William  Plumer,  48-49 ; 
influence  of  Jeremiah  Mason  over, 
51-52;  extent  of  practice,  52-53;  ora- 
tion at  Fryeburg,  55 ;  at  Concord,  56  ; 
"Considerations  on  the  Embargo," 
62;  oration  at  Portsmouth,  62-63; 
Brentwood  Convention,  63-66 ;  writes 
the  address,  65-66;  elected  to  House 
of  Representatives,  66 ;  life  at  Wash- 
ington, 69-70;  on  opposition  to  war 
with  Great  Britain,  71-72 ;  resolutions 
of  inquiry,  75-76 ;  sent  with  them  to 
Madison,  79-80;  answer  of  Madison, 
81;  on  report  of  restrictive  system, 
84-87;  on  protection  to  manufac- 
turers, 86-87;  opposition  to  the  ad- 
ministration, 87-89 ;  reelected,  89 ;  de- 
cides to  leave  Portsmouth,  90;  goes 
to  Boston  (1816),  90;  practice  at  Bos- 
ton, 96 ;  member  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention,  96-97;  presidential  elec- 
tor, 97 ;  member  of  Massachusetts 
General  Court,  97 ;  elected  to  House 
of  Representatives,  99 ;  criticism  of 
New  England,  99;  speech  on  the 
cause  of  the  Greeks,  100-108;  notes 
for,  109 ;  opposed  to  party  caucus, 
113-114;  on  the  tariff,  116,  117-121 ;  on 
the  candidates,  122-124,  125;  on  elec- 
tion of  1825,  130-132 ;  the  Bunker  Hill 
oration,  132-136;  on  the  Panama  mis- 
sion, 138-140 ;  desires  the  English  mis- 
sion, 141 ;  oration  on  Adams  and  Jef- 
ferson, 142-145 ;  elected  senator,  146  ■ 


death  of  Mrs.  Webster,  146;  speech 
on  the  tariff  of  1828,  149-151 ;  defends 
his  vote,  151-155 ;  views  on  the  Union, 
157 ;  debate  with  Hayne,  158-181 ;  re- 
ception of  the  reply  by  the  people, 
182-187 ;  demand  for  copies,  187-189 ; 
tendered  a  public  dinner  in  Boston, 
190 ;  given  a  silver  pitcher,  190 ;  speech 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  190-191 ;  dinner  at 
New  York  City  and  speech,  191-193; 
speech  before  a  convention  at  Wor- 
cester, 197-199;  speech  at  Boston  on 
Jackson's  proclamation,  202-203  ;  de- 
fense of  the  Force  Act,  205-206 ;  reply 
to  Calhoun,  210-216;  resolutions  on 
the  tariff,  218 ;  effects  of  his  reply  to 
Calhoun,221;  receptions  tendered  him, 
221-222;  at  Pittsburg,  222-224;  sup- 
ports resolution  censuring  Jackson, 
228;  attacks  the  financial  policy  of 
Jackson,  228 ;  returns  to  Washington 
to  speak  against  the  "protest,"  229; 
denounced  by  Senator  Forsyth,  229; 
speaks  on  the  powers  and  duties 
of  the  Executive,  230 ;  attacked  by 
the  cartoonists,  230-231;  speaks  on 
the  Constitution  at  a  dinner  in 
Bangor,  231;  "the  defender  of  the 
Constitution,"  232;  speaks  at  Boston, 
232 ;  considered  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  235 ;  withdraws  candidacy 
for  President,  235,  236 ;  receives  four- 
teen electoral  votes  in  Massachusetts, 
236;  thinks  of  retiring  from  the  Sen- 
ate, 236;  finances  of,  236;  buys  a 
Western  farm,  236 ;  urged  not  to  re- 
sign senatorship,  237;  public  recep- 
tion in  New  York,  237;  speaks  at 
Niblo's  Garden,  237;  visits  the 
West,  239,  240 ;  contest  with  Calhoun 
in  Senate,  241 ;  on  slavery  and  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  243,  244,  245, 
249 ;  opposed  to  abolitionists,  245 ;  op- 
poses Calhoun's  resolution  on  slavery 
m  District  of  Columbia,  246,  247;  re- 
views Calhoun's  political  conduct,  248, 
249 ;  opinion  on  antislavery  and  the 
conciliation  of  the  South,  249,  250 ;  on 
the  general  question  of  slavery,  250 ; 
nominated  for  President  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts Whigs,  250 ;  enters  the  cam- 
paign for  Harrison,  25] ;  speaks  at 
Saratoga,  Bunker  Hill,  New  York,  and 
Richmond,  252-254;  resigns  senator- 
ship  and  becomes  Secretary  of  State, 
255 ;  advises  members  of  Congress  and 
defends  Tyler,  256-261 ;  remains  in 
Tyler's  cabinet,  261;  champions  Ty- 
ler, 262;  takes  up  the  disputes  with 
England,  263  ;  attempts  to  adjust  the 
McLeod  affair,  265-270;  closes  the 
Caroline  affair,  273  ;  addresses  a  letter 
to  Ashburton  on  impressment,  273, 
274;  secures  extradition  treaty,  274, 
275;  settles  slave-trade  question  and 
the  Maine  boundary,  275 ;  again  urged 
to  leave  the  cabinet,  276;  delivers 
"  Hard  to  Coax  "  speech,  276,  279,  280; 
attacked  by  the  press,  281;  plan  to 
send  him  tb  England  on  mission  con- 


INDEX 


343 


cerning  Oregon,  282 ;  resigns  office  of 
Secretary  of  State,  282;  causes,  283; 
a  private  citizen,  284;  friends  oppose 
retirement,  284;  prefers  Senate  to 
the  bar,  284 ;  finances,  284 ;  approves 
nomination  of  Clay,  287 ;  forgiven  by 
the  Whigs,  287;  opposes  annexation 
of  Texas,  288 ;  returns  to  the  Senate, 
288;  nominated  by  Choate  at  Bal- 
timore, 289 ;  anti-expansion  resolu- 
tions, 289;  on  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 
290;  candidate  for  the  presidency 
(1848),  291-292;  scenes  in  the  nomi- 
nating convention,  292-297 ;  anger  at 
Taylor's  nomination,  297-300;  the 
Marshfield  speech,  300;  desires  a  cabi- 
net office,  301 ;  extending  the  Consti- 
tution to  the  Territories,  304-305 ;  the 
compromise  of  1850,  307 ;  appeals  to, 
to  speak,  308-312 ;  effects  of  the  speech 
315-321 ;  defends  his  course,  321-323 ; 
death  of  Taylor,  325;  Secretary  of 
State,  325;  defense  of  the  compro- 
mise measures,  325-330;  candidate  for 
the  Presidency,  331;  refuses  to  sup- 
port Scott,  332 ;  death,  333 

"Webster,  Ebenezer,  settles  at  Salisbury, 
4 ;  serves  in  the  war  for  independence, 
4-5;  father  of  Daniel,  C;  becomes  a 
lay  judge,  11 ;  aspirations  for  Daniel, 
12-13 ;  anecdote  of,  42-^3 

Webster,  Ezekiel,  his  letter  to  Daniel, 
30-31;  persuades  Daniel  to  come  to 
Boston,  35-36 

Whigs,   nominate  Clay  at   Baltimore, 


287 ;  Webster  approves  Clay  at  ratifi- 
cation meeting  of,  287 ;  of  Massachu- 
setts return  Webster  to  Senate,  288 ; 
national  convention  at  Baltimore, 
289 ;  scenes  at  the  convention,  293-297 ; 
admiration  of,  for  Webster,  230 ;  con- 
sider Webster  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  235 ;  in  Massachusetts 
convention  refuse  Webster's  with- 
drawal of  candidacy,  236  ;  defeated, 
236;  of  Massachusetts  nominate  Web- 
ster, 250 ;  nominate  Harrison,  250 ; 
campaign  of,  251-254;  victory  of, 
in  1840,  255;  policy  of,  outlined  by 
Webster,  259-261 ;  attempt  to  embar- 
rass Tyler,  260,  261 ;  read  Tyler  out 
of  party,  261-276 ;  urge  Webster  to  re- 
tire from  cabinet,  276;  of  Massachu- 
setts indorse  Clay,  276;  Webster's 
defiance,  279,  280  ;  indignation  of,  280, 
281 ;  attacks  of  press,  282  ;  Webster  a 
delegate  to  a  convention  of,  284 ;  con- 
vention of  1848,  292-297;  Webster's 
criticism,  300 ;  attacked  by  Webster, 
326;  convention  of  1852,  331 

Whittier,  John  C,  on  the  7th-of-March 
speech,  318 

Wilmot  Proviso,  245,  289,  290 

Wilson,  Henry,  at  the  Whig  convention 
in  1848,  294 

Winthrop,  Robert  C,  237 

Wood,  Rev.  Samuel,  one  of  Webster's 
teachers,  16-17 

Worcester,  Webster's  speech  at,  197- 
199 


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